


Masks Off Identities Out

by Anonymous



Category: Larry Stylinson - Fandom, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Book Based, Character Death, John Green - Freeform, Multi, The fault in our stars, larry au, larry is real, larry stylinson - Freeform, larry university au, looking for alaska
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-10
Updated: 2014-04-20
Packaged: 2018-01-11 20:25:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 25
Words: 29,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1177550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nothing will ever be the same in Louis life, well not at least when he moves to his new University. That’s the exact place where he meets the mysterious, nonchalant Harry Styles. Harry Styles, the prankster, the boy who doesn't give a damn, the boy who mysteriously disappears one day, was it another one of his silly pranks, or just another adventure?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfic is basically based off of the book "Looking For Alaska" by John Green. It is an amazing book and I recommend it. If by any chance you do not know who John Green is he also has another book called "The Fault In Our Stars". I strongly recommend the two books, they are spectacular and they bring you into a world of your own. 
> 
> Thank you for reading.

Louis had just said goodbye to his mum. Goodbyes were never hard for Louis, and besides, he’d be seeing his mum over the breaks. After all, his home was only 2 hours away from his new University. Louis had soon looked down to at the map that he was holding, letting out a long sigh, he picked his bags up and made his way to his room. As soon as he took the key out and unlocked the door he was quite disappointed with the sight in front of him. Louis imagined the rooms to be more luxurious than what was right in front of him right now. The faint smell of cigarettes, wallpaper tearing off the walls, the bunk bed that didn’t look sturdy at all for someone to sleep on the top and the olive green stained carpet. “I’ll go with the bottom bunk.” Louis mumbled to himself. Louis threw his baggage’s on the bottom bed and decided to take a shower. As Louis stripped himself he took his time in the shower, not hearing the footsteps of his new roommate.

Louis got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist and left the bathroom. “So I’m guessing you’re my new roommate?” A rave haired boy jumped off the ladder leading to the top bunk. “Yeah, well unfortunately this is not how I wanted to meet my roommate.”

“My name’s Zayn, I’ll leave the room so you can change, then we can learn more about you.” Louis quickly put on a sweater and some jeans which he rolled the cuffs and put some vans on, letting his hair down and putting a beanie over it. Louis opened the door to see a smiling Zayn. “So new roommate, what might your name be?”

“Louis, My name is Louis Tomlinson.” Zayn slowly slid down the wall and sat on the floor making himself comfortable on the horrid green coloured carpet. “So Louis, where you from?”

“M’from Doncaster.” Zayn let out a howl and said something between howls that was hard for Louis to make out. “Doncaster boy, listen. Don’t go anywhere near the Richies. They are stuck up and think they own the damn place, because their parents own companies, and since you’re from Doncaster I suppose that you could consider yourself a Richie. But if you do, I would likely say get out of my face, stay out of my way and back the hell away from me and my friends.” Zayn took a breath before continuing on. “But if you do not consider yourself a Richie and one of us, then you are welcome to hang out, but be warned once caught with a Richie, your head is mine.” Zayn’s threat seemed pretty fair, nothing he hasn’t heard before.

“Something I can live with.” Louis grinned. “Don’t get too full of yourself mate, it’s not every day you see a scrawny lad like yourself talking to someone like me.” Louis scanned Zayn’s body, not in any perverted way. Zayn wasn’t scrawny nor was he pudgy, he was toned. “Okay, well Donny, I’m going to get something from a dear friend of mine.” Zayn casually walked out of their room and left the door open which Louis went to go close until he heard Zayn’s voice. “Coming or not Donny, come on you twat!” Louis closed their door and ran down the hall to catch up to Zayn.

‘Room 718’ Zayn ferociously knocked on the door until we heard a low grumble. “I swear to fucking god Jase if you ask for one more fucking-“The curly haired boy stopped as soon as he saw Zayn. “Well if it isn’t theoh so infamous Malik, what brings you and the little one here?” Zayn pushed the curly haired boy and invited himself in. “Here 5 pounds now give me a pack.” It wasn’t then when I saw ‘Styles’ searching through a drawer and pulling out a pack of Marlboro Lights and chucking it at Zayn, which Zayn had caught with his left hand. “So who’s the bloke? Has Zayn already fucked the shit out of you, I swear sometimes, he can get a bit horny.” Zayn chuckled and sat down on the faded brown couch that was located in the corner. “I’m Harry Styles, but you can call me Styles, either one is fine.”

“Just to let you know Styles, I am in a happy relationship with beloved-“ Harry cut him off with a slap on the head before giving me his full attention again. “Anyways, your name is?”

“Louis Tomlinson, you can call me Louis.” Louis held his hand out for Harry to shake but Harry gently refused it and pulled Louis into a hug. “Call him Donny, he’s a Doncaster Boy, who says he’s not one of the Richies but one of us.” Harry looked down at Louis and in that moment Louis realized how beautiful Harry was. His jaded eyes with a bit of brown and blue, his lips that were pressed into a thin line, and his jaw line, which was cut out so perfectly, but of course he was snapped out of his trance and back into reality. “Doncaster?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, it’s actually a really nice town, although I lived in a small house considering it was me, mum and my four other sisters.” Harry pulled away from Louis and sat down next to Zayn. “I think it’s time we go to the smoke hole, I have a funny story to tell you actually.”

 

And that’s when Louis realized he had made two new friends within his first day there.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing will ever be the same in Louis life, well not at least when he moves to his new University. That’s the exact place where he meets the mysterious, nonchalant Harry Styles. Harry Styles, the prankster, the boy who doesn't give a damn, the boy who mysteriously disappears one day, was it another one of his silly pranks, or just another adventure?

Smoke Hole: “Well Donny here it is.” Harry sat down in the blue plastic chair, we were in the middle of the woods, no one else was here. “We come here to drink and smoke, out of sight, out of mind.” Zayn lit a cigarette and put it in between his lips before leaning on the tree trunk.  
“Oi!” I heard someone yell, Zayn and Harry both turned their heads before getting up and running towards the blonde haired kid. “What, Irish boy?’ Harry pulled the boy into a hug and Zayn did the same. “Niall this is Louis, Louis this is Niall, he’s from Ireland, and he’s from Doncaster.” Zayn said in one breath. “So is it just the three of you?” Louis asked.  
“One more, Liam. He usually gets here a day after moving in. That’s just how he is.” Niall kindly replied. Niall took a cigarette from Zayn and lit it. “So all of you smoke?” I asked.  
“Drink, smoke and prank. That’s pretty much our life, you’re up for one hell f’a year Donny boy.” I laughed and Zayn handed me a lit cigarette. I don’t particularly smoke, only because 1. My parents (mum) would kill me if I did 2. My sisters look up to me 3. I never bothered to try it.  
I took the cigarette from Zayn and put it in between my lips, I inhaled the smoke before letting out a never-ending string of coughs. “First time?” Harry raised an eyebrow and smiled at me. “Uhm, yeah.” I said shyly. I tried it another time, it wasn’t as bad as the first but I still let out a few coughs. “You get used to it.” Niall said before throwing his cigarette into an empty beer bottle.  
We stayed out until the sun started setting, “well I’m taking Niall with me to go see Perrie, Donny, walk with Harry back to the dorm rooms, he can get you dinner.” I watched as Zayn and Niall walked away from us, then I turned my head to Harry. “I want to show you one more thing. Timing is important going here, and tonight would be a perfect night to show you.” Harry grabbed my hand before we ran off into the opposite direction from where we came from. I tried my best to avoid tripping over tree roots, and rocks. But Harry just kept pulling me, that is until we made a sudden stop. Harry let go of my hand and walked away, the light had gone down, so it was hard to see him. But then I heard his footsteps behind me and he turned me around so that I was facing a lake. “The moons reflection, on the water, one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.” I agreed with him. The sight before my eyes was something like I've never seen before, it was alluring to the eyes. “This is my favourite place on campus, mostly everyone knows about it but no one goes here.” Harry explained to me.  
“C’mere.” Harry grabbed my wrist this time and we sat down on what I'm guessing a swing set. “It makes me feel free, being here. I don’t usually explain this to people, hell, I don’t talk about this with people but, sometimes, you just got to let it out.” Louis stayed silent as he listened to Harry’s steady breaths.  
After a few seconds of silence Harry looked at Louis “how about you? What do you do to feel like yourself again?” Louis thought to himself. Nothing. Nothing at all, Louis was always himself except right now, sitting beside this gorgeous boy, Louis self-esteem lowered by a lot, how could he be himself. “I don’t know. I guess when I’m with family.” Harry laughed and got off the swings and started walking away. Louis finally got up and caught up to Harry. “So I’m assuming we’re getting dinner?” Louis quietly asked, he hasn’t eaten since earlier and his stomach was grumbling. “Yeah, unless you want to starve to death.” Once the school was in sight I was a bit happy.  
We finally reached Harry’s room. He opened his mini fridge and brought out a 2 cold pizza slices and 2 beers to go along with it. “Is it okay to drink-like in the dorm rooms?” Harry looked at me and nodded his head “Just as long as we don’t get caught, lights off at 10, and it’s only 8:30, we’ve got time Lou, trust me I know what I’m doing.” I thought of the nickname that just slid off of Harry’s mouth, it’s different from Donny, it seems as it’s his own personal name for me. I sat down on the brown couch and ate my cold pizza, I prefer my pizza hot but right now I wasn’t in any mood to fight it I was hungry and I was willing to eat anything. “So Lou, I mean, Louis or Donny, or whatever the fuck you want to be called. Maybe you should leave now, it’s already 9:30 and I don’t want you to get in trouble.”  
Once I left Harry’s room, I entered my room. I saw Zayn on his bed reading a book. “She’s a fucking bitch.” Zayn said out of the blue. “Who is?”  
“My girlfriend.” He simply replied. He then put down his book and looked at me. “I didn’t do anything wrong, honestly. I had dinner with her and she got all mad because I invited Niall to come, she’s always been like that and its irritating me and she’s irking me and I don’t know.” I didn’t know what to say, I was too scared I might say the wrong things, I don’t know Zayn well enough to give any advice. So I decided staying silent was my best choice. “Have you ever cared so much about someone, but they just annoy the living shit out of you that you could push them away and leave them, but when you do you start to miss them more than anything?” As soon as he asked that, 4 girls came to mind. My sisters. “Yeah, actually I have.” I then heard the soft snores of my roommate. I guess it was time for me to sleep to.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing will ever be the same in Louis life, well not at least when he moves to his new University. That’s the exact place where he meets the mysterious, nonchalant Harry Styles. Harry Styles, the prankster, the boy who doesn't give a damn, the boy who mysteriously disappears one day, was it another one of his silly pranks, or just another adventure?

I woke up to my covers being pulled off of me. “Get out of bed.” I heard a low voice say. “I said get out of bed, NOW!” I quickly opened my eyes and scurried out of bed until I was thrown over someone’s shoulder. “See ya later Donny.” I heard Zayn call out. I was still a bit hazy and did not know what was going on. A few minutes later I was e=being thrown onto the ground with a kick to my stomach. “Where’s the duct tape?” I heard the voice say again. Next thing I knew I my arms were being duct taped to my sides and my legs were being duct taped together. “Throw him in!”  
My body soon hit the water and I found myself sinking, impossible to swim back to the top, the duct tape held me back from getting any air.

“This is it I’m going to die. No markings on the world, just a plain boy from Doncaster, no one important.”

Just as I was about to give up I felt the water seeping through the duct tape, letting it slide lose from my body. I manage to get my arms out of the grip of the tape and swam back to the top. Once I reached land I layed down on the fake sand and started to take deep breaths. After I caught my breath I ripped the tape off of my wet skin. I ran back to the dorm room and I stopped right in front of Harry’s room. It took me a while to notice what I was doing until the door opened and a sleepy, curly haired, boy opened the door. “Why are you all wet?” He asked.  
“Some people were trying to-“ Harry then stopped me and went into his room. He came back with a towel and led me back to my own room. “You don’t want to hear what I have to say?” I asked him. “Shut up Lou, go complain to Zayn about it.” He opened the door and pushed me inside. I turned around so that I was facing the no closed door. I was a bit shocked at what had just happened, he just stopped me mid-sentence and left me in my room, no explanation or anything.  
“Did you get lost?” Zayn asked. “No. I almost died!” I yelled throwing the towel on the ground and changing into new clothes. “Don’t worry they do that to almost everyone, they throw them into the lake and run off.” Louis scratched the back of his neck confused, “they duct taped me, they taped my arms to my sides and my legs together, I could’ve died!” Louis yelled back.  
“Wait what the fuck?! They taped you together. They tried to kill you?! Are you serious?! Oh fuck, I have to tell Harry about this.” Louis sighed at the thought of telling Harry, considering Harry didn’t care, he made that pretty obvious. “He doesn’t care. I stopped by his room and tried to tell him.”  
“He’s just moody, we’ll tell him tomorrow, get some sleep. We’ll figure out who did this to you tomorrow, they never do such a thing, usually they just throw them into the lake.” But by then Louis had already fallen asleep.

 

Notes: In Looking For Alaska, “Pudge” was actually naked when they threw him into the lake.


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing will ever be the same in Louis life, well not at least when he moves to his new University. That’s the exact place where he meets the mysterious, nonchalant Harry Styles. Harry Styles, the prankster, the boy who doesn't give a damn, the boy who mysteriously disappears one day, was it another one of his silly pranks, or just another adventure?

Today was the first day of classes. Louis walked into English class to where he saw Harry. Mixed emotions started filling his blood; anger, happiness and curiousness. Louis decided to sit towards the middle right next to the window. "So, tell us who you saw last night and put x's on the corner of their desks, understand?" Louis looked up and saw Zayn and Liam putting 3 tiny pieces of paper on his desk that all had the letter 'X' on them. "We'll see you later Donny" Zayn and Liam went back to their seats which was located next to Harry. 

Louis looked up and saw three buff guys walking in, that's when the memories from last night came flooding back. Louis turned around to look at Zayn, and Zayn looked at Louis. 'That's them?' Zayn mouthed. Louis nodded his head slowly and crumpled up the papers in his hand. 

"Okay class, first day of the new school year, you all know me as Mr. Shaw, I've been teaching this class for at least 6 year for those who don't know me. Unfortunately I have poor lungs and have a tendency to take long breaks while talking. So if there are no further questions, take a book from the back of the classroom and get to reading." The old teacher sat down in his grey old squeaky chair and put his nose into his own book. 

Louis got up and got his own book before getting pushed by one of the three guys. "Didn't notice you there, oops." The guy grabbed a book and bumped into Louis another time. Louis went back to his seat and the whole time he felt a pair of eyes on him. He turned around to find Harry staring at him and taking an occasional glance at the guy who bumped into Louis. 

After reading a few pages the bell rang and Louis stuffed the book into his bag. "Come on, let's go." Harry grabbed Louis wrist and ran out of the class room and into the grassy area in the middle of the school. "Okay, I saw we get them back, but how is the question....we have to go back to my room." Harry said while talking to himself. "Let's wait for the other guys." While waiting I watched Harry talk to some of his other friends. Harry was well-known here for a lot of things, but mostly his pranks. 

"See you later Ed, give me a ring later." Without any introduction Harry once again pulled Louis away and they went back to Harry's room where they saw Zayn, Liam and Niall. "So, where is it?" Niall asked. Harry lifted his mattress up and grabbed a small brown notebook. "Okay, let's see what new pranks we got." Harry flipped through the pages and kept making weird noises or mumbling 'already done that.' until Harry closed the book threw it on the ground and yelled "eureka!" 

"So I say at night, we as in all of us plus Ed, cut the-" Liam stopped him "no cutting things Harold." Harry sighed and threw the closest thing to him at Liam. Luckily for Liam it was a pillow, it couldn't been the vase but Harry went for the softer item. "Fuck you Liam! You take the fun out of everything." Harry layed down on the bed and made an incoherent noise into the pillow. "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fu-" 

"Shut up Harry!" Zayn yelled. "God Damnit you guys are against everything I have to say." Harry yelled again. "Harold-" Liam yelled back again. 

"Liam I swear to god if you do not shut up I will punch you in your face." Harry got up and took a cigarette from one of his jackets and went into the bathroom. 

"It comes naturally to us." Niall laughed. "We fight, he smokes, comes back and it's all good." Zayn explained. "Why does he go into the bathroom?" Louis asked. "The steam from the shower, it doesn't make the room smell and the steam from the heat just helps." 

A few minutes later Harry came back, I could smell a tint of smoke but it was drowning in the scent of apples. "Okay, let's just cut their heat off and take their blankets and clothes. We're not 'cutting' anything, we're just turning it off." Liam gave in and finally said yes to the plan. 

So that's exactly what we did last night, we planned our evil scheme.   
Eureka: I have found it


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing will ever be the same in Louis life, well not at least when he moves to his new University. That’s the exact place where he meets the mysterious, nonchalant Harry Styles. Harry Styles, the prankster, the boy who doesn't give a damn, the boy who mysteriously disappears one day, was it another one of his silly pranks, or just another adventure?

And that's exactly what we did. 

Louis P.O.V

"Liam you're on watch. Niall and Zayn go into their room and make sure they don't wake up, Lou come with me to cut the heating to their room." Harry gave us the directions and we made our separate ways, I went with Harry to the basement of our building. Harry opened a door and we entered, we kept walking until we stopped in front of a silver panel. "This is all the different controls to all the rooms, hot water, heating, AC, everything needed. Don't tell Liam, but we're cutting their heating system off and their hot water, then we'll jam it so they can't fix it and they'll have to call technicians, which will leave them with no heat or hot water for a few days." 

I felt guilty, yeah they almost drowned me, but no heat, no hot water that's hell. "Okay Lou, let's go before we get caught." I ran behind Harry as we made our way up the stairs and down the long hall way. That's where we saw 2 of the guys talking to Liam. "Stay here Lou, I don't want you to get in any more trouble." Harry walked up to the two guys and I stayed where I was. What they were saying was inaudible. Harry pushed one of the guys against the wall and held him there by the neck and started whispering something. The other guy put his hands in surrender and said something back, Harry pushed the guy on the ground and grabbed me and pulled me into his room. "Looks like you're with me for tonight." He threw a shirt and a pair of shorts at me. 

When I put the shirt on, it reached mid-thigh. "Uh, Harry? Where am I sleeping?" I noticed he only had one bed, I mean I could sleep on the couch, but that would mean my back would hurt like hell in the morning. "In bed, where else?" 

"Where are you sleeping?" I questioned. "In bed, where else?" Harry got into his bed and pulled the covers over his shirtless body. "Come on Lou, it's not like I'm going to do anything, although you're arse makes it impossible to actually not do anything." I gave him the bird and joined him in the bed. "G'night Loubear, see you in the morning." He pulled me into his arms and my head was against his chest. "I haven't had someone in a while." He mumbled into my hair. I wiggled a little bit to get more comfy, I looked at the time '1:24' am 

I fell asleep to the light snores coming from Harry's mouth. 

______________________

I woke up to the sun shining in my face, and arms wrapped around my body. I opened my eyes and saw Harry staring at me. I stared into his eyes, none of us said anything. In that moment I realized how beautiful Harry was, no matter where he was or what he was doing. "Good morning." His morning voice was probably one of the sexiest things ever, it was raspy and sweet. "Morning Harry." I tried to get out of his grip to go brush my teeth but he wouldn't let me go. "Where are you going?" He asked. "To my room. I have to go brush my teeth and take a shower, and change and go to class." I looked at the time and I started freaking out I had missed 2 classes. "Harry let me go." I wiggle so that I could get out but he tightened his grip. "Don't leave me." He begged. "Harry please, I have to go." Once I was free I ran out of his room and into mine and Zayn's room. I didn't see Zayn around, so I assumed he was already at class. 

I took a quick shower, put my hair under a beanie, brushed my teeth and got dressed. By the time I got to the theatre lobby everyone looked at me. "Better late than never Mr. Tomlinson. Take a seat. We are learning about improvisation." Once I took my seat in the back I took my notes out and started taking notes. 

-Lunch Time-

"Nice of you to join us Lou, where were you last night?" Zayn asked. "Harry made me stay at his last night." 

"Oh, right." Liam said. We all ate in silence until Harry sat down next to Liam and Niall. "Last night was fun." Harry grinned. "Which part?" Niall bantered. "Shut up Niall before I bash your face." To me that was a surprising threat, considering Niall wouldn't even hurt a fly, he was just too sweet. "Come on Harry, he was joking." Liam said. "A joke like that isn't funny Liam, he's making it sound like I slept with him." 

"But you did sleep with him, technically." Zayn said, I knew this pushed Harry's buttons. "Fine, if this effects everyone, I just won't talk to him." He threw his tray away and left the table. "He'll get over it." Niall smiled at me and continued to eat. "Yeah." I mumbled back. I wasn't hurt by Harry's words, I knew he would get over it, they just said the wrong things, and Harry was a sensitive person. Maybe a tad bit too sensitive. 

_______

I saw Harry at the lake, just as expected. "Hey Harry." I sat by him on the swing. "About a while ago, I didn't mean it. They just pissed me off, they're still living in the past." I wondered what he meant by that, but I barely knew Harry, why would he tell me about his past. "Tell me, Louis, in your honest opinion, what are your thoughts about me?" I looked at the lake, why was he asking this? "My thoughts...? Uhm, you're a really sweet guy, I mean, when you aren't angry. You're really nice-" 

"No that's not what I meant. Do you think of me as more than a friend at all Louis?" I wasn't sure of this question at all, Zayn had told me Harry wasn't a relationship guy, and not to fall for any tricks he had up his sleeve. "W-What do you mean Haz?" Harry looked at me and pulled me onto his lap. "I mean, I don't know what I mean, I guess, this morning you made me realize a lot of things." I rested my head on his head full of curls, "Like what?" 

"Just things." Harry picked me up off of his lap and put me on the ground so that I was standing up. "Listen Louis, I'm not sure what the other guys told you but like I said a while ago they're just living in the past." 

And with that Harry left me in the middle of the woods.


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing will ever be the same in Louis life, well not at least when he moves to his new University. That’s the exact place where he meets the mysterious, nonchalant Harry Styles. Harry Styles, the prankster, the boy who doesn't give a damn, the boy who mysteriously disappears one day, was it another one of his silly pranks, or just another adventure?

Louis P.O.V

I mean so much for settling down and finding my peace in mind. Today was a very lackadaisical day, I was feeling very lazy and had no interest in whatever. Today was a Saturday, I was sitting all alone in the dorm room, it was terrible, lonely, and just quiet without Zayn here. 

"Open the door, god damnit Lou!" I quickly shuffled out of bed not knowing I had fallen back asleep. I quickly stumbled to the door and opened it to find an angry Harry. "Zayn's not here right now but I can-" He cut me off by pushing me to the side and going straight for the mini fridge. "I know he's not here right now, saw him with Perrie not too long ago. Now if you would, please come sit by me and comfort me like a good friend would." I quickly closed the door and sat beside Harry keeping a good amount of distance. "Closer Lou." I scooted a little closer and he pulled me onto his lap. 

"For god's sake I don't have fucking cooties this isn't the fifth grade." he buried his head into my chest and started mumbling incoherent words. "I just need someone Louis, you don't understand. I've been so lonely and it's killing me, I just need someone to cuddle with and listen to me while I rant on about whatever. So Louis, I am giving you that position.1" I didn't know whether I wanted to shoot myself or allow myself to let Harry Styles closer into my life? "Position of what?" What all that managed to come out of my mouth.

"Position of being my closest friend here who will actually have time to listen to me and let me cuddle them." Harry buried his head more into Louis chest and held a tight grip around his waist. "Thank you Louis." 

"Welcome Harry." Harry lifted Louis off of his lap and made his way into Louis bed. Louis sat on the couch debating on whether he should go to the cafeteria or just stay still until Harry says something. he went for the second option. "Coming or what? I don't have all day." Louis got his butt off of the couch and joined Harry in the bed. "You smell like vanilla and cherries, I like it." Harry mumbled while putting his arms around Louis. 

"Don't be so stiff Lou." Louis put his hand in Harry's hair and started playing with his lose curls. "This is just kind of new to me." I sighed. "Get used to it, because sooner or later I might be getting on one knee and asking you to be my boyfriend or some sappy shit like that." Harry laughed and looked at me. "You're gay?" I blurted out, not the most sentimental way to ask someone but it just came out. "Labels are not my forte Louis, if I like someone then I like someone." Harry replied. "Oh." Was all I could say. 

"Oh and by the way, don't drink the milk unless you want the taste of sour milk.2"

 

1 In reality, Alaska does indeed have a boyfriend in the book.   
2 So in the book, to hide the smell of the vodka, 'The Colonel' mixed the vodka with the milk so that 'The Eagle' wouldn't catch them. It also mentions that it tastes like sour milk. Kids don't do this at home or at university.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing will ever be the same in Louis life, well not at least when he moves to his new University. That’s the exact place where he meets the mysterious, nonchalant Harry Styles. Harry Styles, the prankster, the boy who doesn't give a damn, the boy who mysteriously disappears one day, was it another one of his silly pranks, or just another adventure?

"Louis do you know how to iron a shirt?!" Zayn yelled form across the room. "Uhm, I can try..." Louis questioned, he looked at Zayn who was seated on the floor holding an iron to a black dress shirt. "Fucking shit I burnt myself like 5 times already." Zayn handed Louis the iron and Louis sat down so that he could iron the black shirt. "Do you have an ironing board?" Louis asked. 

"I borrowed that from Liam, he doesn't have the board just the iron." Louis gave up half way through ironing. "Its impossible!" He threw his hands up and let a long breath out. Once Louis turned the iron off there was a quiet knock at the door. He watched as Zayn got it and there he was talking to a girl. "Come on in El." The girl entered and sat down on Louis bed, "it's filthy in here." She pointed the obvious out. "Fuck, Eleanor iron my shirt." 

"Just because I'm a girl does not mean I need to mother you Zayn Malik, learn for yourself it isn't that hard." Eleanor started putting on some lipgloss before making her way to Louis who was on the floor. "Hi, I'm Eleanor Calder, you are?" Louis slowly got up and took her outstretched hand. "Louis Tomlinson." She let go of Louis hand before turning around to face Zayn. "Listen Zayn, she'll be here any minute just put it on and we'll see how it looks." Zayn put the shirt on and buttoned it up, the wrinkles were still obvious that he hadn't pressed his shirt, he put a white vest on top of it which hid some of the wrinkled parts. "Oh boy, she'll be pissed if she sees this." Zayn was just about to take the shirt off before another knock at the door came. 

"I'll get it." Eleanor called. Zayn peeked around the corner to see his blonde haired-blue eyed girlfriend. "Zayn you ready?!" She yelled. Zayn came out from the corner and grinned at her. "What the hell is that?" One hand was on her hip and most her weight was put onto her right foot while her right hand was motioning to Zayn's shirt. "A shirt and vest." He replied smartly. "To hell I don't know that, why are there so many wrinkles on it, it wouldn't have killed you to take 5 minutes of your time and press your damn shirt. We're meeting my goddamn parents! You can't be seen like that." She scolded Zayn. 

"I wouldn't have to try this hard if your parents actually liked me!" Zayn yelled back. Her short figure walked closer to Zayn and she glared at him. "Maybe if you were actually likeable then maybe they would actually enjoy your company." She said back. "Are you saying I'm not likeable?!" Zayn asked furiously. "If you can't make an impression on my parents don't even bother coming tonight." She turned away and stormed out of the room. "My lovely girlfriend everyone!" Zayn applauded himself and ripped the shirt off. 

"She'll come around." Eleanor said, Louis had totally forgotten that she was there, considering the scene that had just happened right before him. "I'm telling you, we will never be a happy couple, no matter how hard I try I always fuck shit up. I need a smoke, Louis go buy some from Harry, I'll pay you back." Louis got up quickly and made a bee-line for the front door. As soon as he got to Harry's door he knocked. "S'open!" Harry called out from the other side. 

"A pack of Marlboro lights for Zayn please." Louis said while entering Harry's room. "Another fight with Pez, eh?" Louis nodded and handed Harry 5 pounds. "That's what you get for dating a Richie, and he's the serious one about going near them. I don't understand why they don't just break up. They come from two completely different worlds, but of course it's Zayn, always up for a challenge." Louis shrugged his shoulders not really paying attention to anything Harry just said. "Well then, get out and go before he takes the piss upon himself." Louis passed the only payphone in the hallway while walking back to his and Zayn's room. The phone started ringing and Louis debated it on himself to answer it or not. 

In which he did. "Hello?" Louis said softly. "Uh, hey. Can I talk to Zayn please?" Louis hurried to his room and told Zayn that his girlfriend was on the line. Zayn quickly left the room leaving Eleanor and Louis alone. "So Louis, how about a dinner date? I like Italian and considering you're new, you'll probably need a girlfriend for comforting and support, am I right?" Louis just stared at her with his jaw wide open. Eleanor just practically threw herself at him, and although she was a pretty girl Louis wasn't attracted to girls. 

"He doesn't need you when he already has me." A raspy voice said behind him. "Harry, hey long time no see." Eleanor got up and gave Harry a kiss on the cheek. "Go away Eleanor, he doesn't like you, none of us do." Eleanor rolled her eyes and bit the inside of her cheek. "Then explain why Zayn called me here to meet your new friend." Harry laughed and pulled Louis to his side. "I don't know what was going through his mind but whatever it was it surely was an absurd idea, so El, leave and never come back." And with that Eleanor grabbed her purse that sat on Louis bed and left. "She's nice at times, but it's when she starts throwing herself at you she turns into a bitch, and an even bigger bitch when it comes to rejection. Lovely girl though." Harry laughed while pulling Louis into bone crushing hug. 

"She fucking thinks I got her precious little friend expelled, she thinks I snitched on Nick, apparently someone saw me in the office and told all the Richies I snitched." Zayn came in angry, he threw the lamp at the wall putting a dent into it. "I didn't fucking snitch! I play by the rules, I'm not that fucking crazy. And to think my own girlfriend would accuse me of something that deranged, I would never stoop so low." Zayn threw a book at the wall hitting the same dent the lamp had made. Zayn made a a quick movement to the mini fridge and took a swig of the milk. 

"We need to call the others and go to the smoke hole, this is fucking ridiculous." Zayn pounded on Liam's door while Harry and Louis got Niall and Ed. They all met up at the smoke hole where Zayn started venting to them about his relationship with Perrie. it didn't sound like a healthy relationship to Louis, but what was a healthy relationship now-a-days? "I mean I love her, just not her parents." Zayn sighed and ran a hand through his now messy hair. "Nick is coming back tomorrow." Liam mumbled hoping no one heard him. "What was that Liam?" Zayn said fiercely." 

"I said Nick is coming back tomorrow." All of the guys looked appalled. "But he got expelled." Niall said. "I heard his parents bought it through." Ed mentioned. "You knew?" Harry looked at Ed. "He talked to me before hand." Ed said. "Why are they allowing him back?!" Zayn got up and threw the blue plastic chair in the middle of the trees from a few feet away. "Calm down boy, we don't know what's going to happen, and we know for sure it was none of us that snitched. Let's be reasonable, the night it happened we were all partying at Harry's anyways." Liam came to reason. 

"What happened that night?" Louis asked. "Story time." Harry smiled.


	8. Chapter Seven Pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing will ever be the same in Louis life, well not at least when he moves to his new University. That’s the exact place where he meets the mysterious, nonchalant Harry Styles. Harry Styles, the prankster, the boy who doesn't give a damn, the boy who mysteriously disappears one day, was it another one of his silly pranks, or just another adventure?

-Flash back to 1 year ago.-

"He's going to kill us if we get caught!" Niall uttered out. "We won't get caught I promise." They went to the shed in the back of the security building that was filled with hay and water boilers. "There's a light." Liam pointed out. "I'll go check it out." Harry bent down behind one of the boilers and saw two people with a flashlight and some matches. "Zayn." Harry whispered in a very hushed tone. Zayn handed Harry the pair of scissors so that Harry could cut a piece of rope hanging from the ceiling. "Go to the back window and see who those people are." Harry grabbed Ed by the sleeve and made him stay with him. Within a few minutes Liam, Niall and Zayn were back with the names. "It's Grimmy and El." Zayn whispered. 

"We have to burn it down before we get caught Grims! Hurry." Eleanor rushed Nick who was lighting a match. "We better get out." Harry and the other lads made their way out of the shed and made a run for it back to the building. "Wait! I'll catch up with you guys, I have to go see Paul (Head security)." Zayn went back to the security building and quietly entered. "Zayn, it's past curfew what are you doing up so late?" 

"Well you see Paul, that's what I'm here to talk to you about. I need to stay past curfew tomorrow." Paul nodded his head and motioned for Zayn to keep going. "I have something going on with Pez and I need to surprise her. So I'm getting your permission to stay past." 

"Just no funny business Zayn, but yes you ave my permission." But that's when it all happened. Paul immediately got out of his seat and put his walkie-talkie on "fire in the shed, fire in the shed!" Paul pulled Zayn out of the building and told him to go back to the dorm. But Zayn being Zayn he didn't which was a mistake he made. Once the fire was put out Paul held Nick by the shoulder up against the police car that had arrived not too long ago. "What the fuck were you doing past curfew, committing arson. You can go to jail for this Grimshaw. Not a very smart plan was it. Who was with you?" When Nick didn't answer Paul pressed his face against the car. "Who was with you?!" Paul demanded an answer but Nick repelled to give an answer. "Was Zayn a distraction? Huh? Was Malik part of this scheme. Did you have him come into my office thinking he would distract me so that I wouldn't notice your escape from the shed?! Someone could've gotten hurt!" Paul chided him. 

"He wasn't with me. No one was." Nick finally answered.


	9. Chapter Nine

Louis was in the library with his head stuck in another book. "Louis Tomlinson, if I'm not mistaken." Louis looked up from his book and saw the familiar face of Nick Grimshaw. "You are not mistaken." Louis mumbled. Nick decided to invite himself into Louis presence by taking the seat right in front of Louis. "So, you and Styles?" 

"What about it?" Louis asked. 

"Dating?"

"Friends." Louis replied sternly seeming uninterested in Nick. "Gay?" Nick asked. "Since the 10th grade, why?" Louis closed his book and stared at Nick. "Same, Styles is bi, or pan...no clue honestly." Louis let out a sigh and looked down at his hands. "You don't really care either, listen Nick, I don't know what you're trying to get at but it'd be appreciated by myself and the others if you would just leave us alone. The past is the past, you're back in school. Let it go." Louis grabbed his bag and got up. "Zayn was one of us you know. He broke the code. Now we're getting him back." Nick stood up and grabbed Louis by the waist and pulled him into a forceful kiss. Louis tried so hard to pull away but stopped trying once he realized he wasn't doing anything but making himself tired. Nick pulled away from Louis and walked out of the library.

 

"He talked to me today." Louis said to Niall and Liam. "Who did? Harry?" Niall asked. "Uhm no, Nick. He kissed me." The room fell silent, Liam and Niall both exchanged looks and stared at Louis. "Stay away from him." They warned. "He followed me into the library. Well not exactly followed but joined me I guess is the term. Then he pulled me by the waist and kissed me" Liam ran his fingers through his hair obviously stressed and not knowing what to do. "We have to tell Harry." Liam whispered. "No! That's why I told you guys, I didn't want Harry to know, he's just going to flip!" Louis was now trying so hard to pin both boys to the ground but he was to weak that Niall managed to slide out and run towards the door. As soon as Niall got to the door the door opened and there stood Zayn. "Run to Harry-Get to Harry!" Niall panted. "What-Why?" Zayn looked startled. Louis was still on the ground on top of Liam pinning him to the ground begging Liam to stop. "What is going on in here?!" Zayn yelled above the yelling and screaming and babbling. "Just get out of my way Zayn we need Harry!" Niall tried pushing Zayn. "Louis get off of me!" Liam yelled trying not to hurt Louis while struggling to get out. "Will someone tell me what is going on!?" Zayn yelled once more. 

"Nick kissed me okay?!" Louis yelled and with that everyone was silent and Liam finally escaped from under Louis. All three boys made a bee-line for Harry's room. Louis followed running after them. They were all pounding on Harry's door by the time Louis reached them. Louis passed by them and went straight to his and Zayn's room. He grabbed his wallet and closed the door behind him. Louis started walking towards the courtyard until he was stopped by Eleanor. "Heard what happened? How'd Harry take it?" 

"Why the fuck is it all about Harry!? Why should he fucking care! So what, Nick kissed me?! What does that have to do with Harry or anyone else!" Louis steamed off and looked at Eleanor. "I mean, Harry does like you if it isn't obvious. Nick kissing you was a big thing on Nick's part, he shouldn't have done it, especially at a time like this." Eleanor explained. "This is fucking impossible, Harry Styles, he can get any girl he wants.-"

"I don't want to hear it Louis, he likes you. Let it be." By the time they both fell silent it was night time and they were still in the courtyard. "Maybe I should go check if Nick is still at a pulse, I'll catch you later Louis." Eleanor grabbed her beer and left Louis on the bench. Louis got up and decided to check if everyone was cooled down. 

Louis entered his room and saw no one. He hurried into the shower and quickly got dressed and hopped into bed. "Louis fucking wake up it's only 8:00!" Zayn yelled into his ear. "What do you want Zayn?" Louis grumbled from underneath the sheets. "It's not what I want, it's what Harry wants, and right now he wants you in his room and you better go before he rips Nick's head off." Louis peeked out from under his sheets and looked at Zayn, he looked like hell, his hair was poking out in different directions and his eyes were bloodshot. "You look terrible." Louis mentioned while getting out of bed. "Thanks for pointing that out Donny, it really helps." Zayn dragged Louis by the arm and they entered Harry's room. 

"What the fuck Louis?! Did you seriously you could just ignore me and not even mention this to me?" Harry yelled. "Seriously Harry, it was just a kiss." Louis crossed his arms and put his weight onto one leg. "Just. A. Kiss. A kiss from Nick Grimshaw! How can you not tell me?!" Harry was fuming by this time. "I couldn't tell you because I knew you would react like this, which I don't even know why. Why do you care if I kissed him or not, and should I remind you that I didn't kiss him. He kissed me." Harry's next movement came unexpectedly. He pulled Louis by the arm and pulled him into a kiss. A passionate kiss, unlike Nick's Louis actually kissed back, Louis actually enjoyed this kiss. Louis wrapped his arms around Harry's neck and tiptoed. When they pulled away the other boys were just standing there awkwardly. "It was just a kiss Louis, but you didn't kiss me I kissed you." Harry whispered and left the room. 

Louis ran out into the hallway and yelled out Harry's name. "Don't you dare walk out on me Harry Styles! Or else you will be doing the exact same thing Nick did to me and you will just be another kiss to me. I will tell someone that I didn't kiss you, you kissed me. I will tell someone it didn't mean anything to me, I don't want to tell people that but I will because you are another Nick Grim-" Louis was cut off by another kiss from Harry. "What am I again Louis Tomlinson?" Louis looked up at Harry and swallowed whatever was in his throat. "You're a dramatic, overprotective, obsessed man." Harry pecked Louis lips and leaned his forehead against Louis' "But I'm your dramatic, overprotective obsessed man." Harry whispered. 

"Are you really?" 

"Only if you'll have me Lou, only if you'll take me." Louis wrapped his arms around Louis neck and nodded his head. "I'll have you." 

 

And that is the story of how Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles started dating.


	11. Chapter Eleven

Day 11

The five boys were all at the smoking hole, Louis sat on Harry's lap while caressing Harry's curls. Harry had a cigarette in one hand and his other arm was wrapped around Louis waist. "God I can't believe you two are dating." Niall finally broke the silence. "Better get used to it Ni, he's definitely a keeper." Harry winked at Louis before taking another puff from the cigarette. Zayn and Liam were bickering about their next double date while Niall and Harry were in their own conversation. It was then Louis realized he fit perfectly into their circle and without each other it just wasn't the same, they were the outcasts, but that was okay because they had each other. Without Niall, the silence would just be awkward and no one would be there to laugh at Harry's lame jokes. Without Liam no one would be there to control everyone. Without Zayn there would be no sense in anything, the routes and the shortcuts would be unknown to them. Without Harry there would be no pranks and without Louis, there would be no one to go to for help and advice and for venting, so somewhat they all played an important role in the circle and Louis just happened to complete it. 

"There is a basketball game tonight." Niall once again broke the silence. "First one of the season." Zayn replied. "What's so big about basketball?" Louis asked. "You'll see." Liam rolled his eyes at all of them. 

While the basketball team was warming up they boys sat next to each other Liam sat on the end, then it was Niall, then Louis, then Harry, then Zayn. "Oi, Ed!" Niall called out. The red head that Louis vaguely remembers from a long time ago turned to Niall and waved and made his way towards them, he sat in front of Niall and smiled. "Aye, you ready for this Irish boy?" Niall laughed and nodded his head uncontrollably. "Well I'll catch you guys later, it was nice seeing your guys again." Ed got up and made his way to his pothead friends. 

As soon as the buzzer went off both teams were on the court. The ref threw the ball up in the air and it looked like our team had the ball. 10 minutes into the game and we were losing 5-1. When the other team was about to make a shot Niall got up and cupped his mouth with his two hands. "Shoot and miss! You fail at this! Don't make the shot! Because you ain't hot! We're definitely better, because we make you wetter!" Niall yelled out causing laughter on our side from his little joke. Niall was still standing up and said one more shout while our side joined in on it. "We're not gonna beat you! But we can try! Everyone around you, thinks you is dry!" Niall was laughing his head off and the guy missed his other shot. The coach on the other team called a time out and called the ref over, in mid-conversation I saw the coach pointing at Niall, and not even a minute after a security guard came up and kicked Niall out which led to all five of us leaving. "We didn't even watch the whole game!" Louis yelled. "Who cares, we were going to lose anyways." Niall laughed, he hadn't stopped laughing when we reached the doors when we say three figures chasing after us. "Malik!" They yelled. "Oh fucking god, run!" After my brain had time to function I was running behind Harry, we made it to the woods where we lost the three figures. "What did you do now?!" Liam yelled at Zayn. 

"Like I fucking know!" Zayn hunched over and caught his breath. They were all going back to the smoke hole where they sat on the floor. "Thank god we saved these beers, it's Friday night, we definitely deserve these." Niall pulled out five beer bottles and pulled his phone out. 

'hey listen, bring us 4 sleeping bags and the 3 tents that are hidden under my bed, yeah mate. I owe you, thanks a bunch mate I 'preciate it.' Niall hung up on whoever he was talking to and grinned up at all the boys. "We're camping out for the night guys." 

30 mintues later, Louis had two beers, Liam had one, Zayn had three, Harry had four as well as Niall. Another 15 minutes Ed came with the sleeping bags and the tents. "Thanks mate, we love you." Niall kissed Ed's cheek before Ed was running the other direction. "Who knows how to set this shit up? Does it come with directions? Like this stick goes into this stick and haha that's what she said, or he said in Harry and Louis point of view, because they get it up the butt." Niall joked. Harry rolled his eyes and Louis just blushed. "god damnit Niall give it to me." Liam took the tents from Niall and set it up within a time frame of 10 minutes. 

Once they were all done joking and the fire was burning out all the boys were heading out to sleep. "Harry and Louis share a tent, Niall you're on your own I don't want to have to deal with your shit. So that leaves Zayn and myself. Louis, you okay sharing with Harry, your sleeping bag?" Louis nodded his head and caught the sleeping bag that Liam threw. "You ready babe?" Harry snaked an arm around Louis waist and all Louis could do was blush like a mad school girl. They entered the tent, it was a tiny tent originally meant for one person and particularly not a tall lanky curly headed boy could exactly fit in the tent. Louis spread the sleeping bag out and grabbed the extra blanket from Harry's hand. They both layed down and Louis smiled at Harry. "Hi." He said softly under his breath. 

"I can't believe you're mine." Was all Harry could say before bringing him into a full make-out session. Once they pulled away because air was important thing, Harry wrapped Louis in his arms and Louis head layed against Harry's chest listening to the slow and steady beat of Harry's heart. "Goodnight love, see you in the morning." Harry kissed Louis once more before falling asleep to the sounds of Louis light snores. 

Day 14

"Louis may I talk to you after class?" Mr. Shaw asked. "Yes sir." As soon as the bell rang Louis walked up to the front of the classroom to Mr. Shaw's desk "I'll wait for you out here Lou." Harry said and walked out of the classroom. "What did you want to see me about Mr. Shaw?" Mr Shaw looked up from his desk and grabbed a few papers from his desk. "Your essays, they all seem to weave into each other, is there any particular story to them?" Louis was hoping that Mr.Shaw would never notice, Louis was sure no one would notice. "Uhm, I just write in an orderly fashion, I always find a way to connect the essays together, it's something that I've always done." Mr. Shaw nodded his head before putting the papers back on his desk. "I like your technique, very original, not common at all. Keep up the good work Mr. Tomlinson, I might have to put you in a grade higher next year." Louis thanked his teacher and went out into the hallway and saw Harry talking to Nick. 

Louis slid into Harry's side and gave a polite greeting to Nick, he hadn't talked to Nick ever since the day he and Harry started dating. Some part of him wants to thank Nick for kissing Louis because him and Harry wouldn't have gotten any further than being best friends or it could've taken a while. "Hello Louis, long time no talk." While standing in silence Louis swore he heard 'or kiss' somewhere in there but he shrugged it off. "Well I'll see you two lovebirds later, goodbye Louis." Nick walked off to his next class, but luckily for Harry and Louis it was an open period. "Let's go meet up with the other guys, we'll see what other fun things we can do." Harry grabbed Louis hand and they were walking through the crowded halls with a few glances but not too many because everyone knew it was eventually going to happen and it's been two weeks, the news wore off pretty quickly. When they got to Louis dorm room they saw Zayn and Perrie on the bed to deep in a conversation to notice Harry and Louis. 

"I'm sorry Zayn, it's just we've been together so long and all we do is fight, I want a boyfriend who will sweet talk me with everything, spoil me and I'm sorry Zayn but it just isn't you. It's just not us anymore. It's just so different." Perrie explained, Zayn wasn't saying anything and Louis and Harry were just standing in the doorway trying their best not to listen in or make it obvious they were. "Yeah I totally get it Pez, we're not exactly the same. You can leave now, go find the guy you deserve." Perrie gave Zayn one last kiss before leaving the room, she said goodbye to Louis and Harry while on her way out. When they turned back around they saw Zayn throwing everything at the wall. 

"Fucking! I gave her everything! I gave her all I got, I was the best I could be around her, so what if we fought, that's what couples do right? They fight!" Zayn was done throwing things and flopped down onto his bed. "It was Nick, he made her believe that she deserves better." Harry grabbed a pack of smokes and threw it at Zayn's head. "Stop mourning and let's go have a smoke, who needs girls." Harry winked at Louis and pulled Zayn up from his bed. "I can't smoke anymore, if she wants better, she'll get better. I can be better." Harry slapped Zayns head and looked Zayn in the eyes. "You are not changing for her, or for anyone. For fucks sake you are Zayn goddamn Malik, we'll find a way to get back at Nick." 

"Remember when those guys were chasing us down at the basketball game?" Zayn asked. "How can I forget?" Louis mumbled. "Well those were the three guys that tried to drown you, they all still thing I'm the one who got Nick expelled. When I found out who really did it, I will beat the shit out of them." Harry rolled his eyes and left the room without a goodbye. "Louis, we have a crisis. Our prank planner just left the room in our most desperate time of need. That little fucker." Not too long after Zayn's string of curse words Harry came back in with that same brown journal from the beginning of the year. "We need your best one!" Harry shook his head "My best one, I'm saving it for a special person. Okay, now let's see what other ones I've got. Ehm- we've already used this one, and this one-" After a few pages of turning Harry's eyes lit up and looked up at Zayn. "Doesn't Nick fancy Lou?" Harry asked Zayn. "Harry, where are you going with this?" Louis asked. "How do feel like playing bait for a night babe?" Louis looked stunned, which he was, stunned that his own boyfriend would ask him to play bait, not only with another guy but the guy who forcefully kissed Louis. "Uhm, yeah, s'alright why?" Why had Louis said that? He could've said, why yes in fact Harry I do mind playing bait for a dick of a guy who goes by the name of Nick Grimshaw. 

"So how about we, have Louis go on a date with Nick, while they're on the date we sneak into his room, rearrange it a bit, and do some other things. We can;t bring Liam along on this one, all he'll do is stop us. So we'll take Niall and Ed." Louis cringed his face and made a disgusted noise. "Doesn't Nick have a roommate?" Louis questioned. "Nah, not after the incident, he's like Harry, both of them are the only two who room alone on this whole campus." 

"You up for this Lou? Like really, really?" Harry made sure once more before Louis agreed. "Yeah, like really, really." Louis smiled. He was doing this for Zayn, Zayn deserved at least this much after tonight. Almost 3 years of dating the same girl and all of a sudden this dick of a bloke walks in and ruins it, yeah Zayn deserves it. 

"Thanks Louis, truly means a bunch to me." Zayn hugged Louis and smiled. "Thanks a bunch babe." Harry kissed Louis and pulled him onto his lap. "Now let's get call Niall and Ed, schedule the date for tomorrow night and we're all set."


	12. Chapter Twelve

"How does this look?" Louis looked into the mirror as Harry was on the bed behind him watching Louis change. "Don't try and look your best, it's Nick, no one special." Harry rolled his eyes and took a sip from his water bottle. "Don't give me attitude Styles, this was your idea, not mine. I'm just doing it for Zayn." Louis turned around and unbuttoned the blazer and threw it in the pile of other coats he tried on that night. "M'just saying it's not exactly the right thing, you could've disagreed to it." Louis turned around to face Harry, he was furious at Harry for saying that. "I'm doing it for Zayn Harry! And you seemed fine with it this afternoon." Louis tried on another coat before deciding it didn't suit his taste. "I just don't want him doing anything to you. He's dangerous Lou, he wants payback and he'll start off with you, you may just end up not coming back to me and somewhere else instead." Louis sat down on Harry lap and pulled him in for a kiss. Louis pressed his forehead against Harry's and smiled. "I will always come back to you, don't worry about it love, it's us against the world." Harry grabbed onto Louis waist and peppered him with kissed along his neck to his lips. "Us against the world?"

"Just us." Louis confirmed before pecking his lips one last time and hopping off Harry's lap. "I thought the blue one looked half-way decent for a date with Nick." Harry grinned. So that's what Louis wore, a plain white t-shirt with a navy blue jacket, blue jeans and vans. "You look like perfection babe, always do, even when you don't try."

"Don't push it babe." Louis and Harry laughed. They laughed until their cheeks were just hurting and they were out of breath but even then they continued to laugh. But their laughing was interrupted by a knock at the door. "I guess I better head out." Louis pecked Harry's lips one last time, that included Harry trying to deepen it but the person at the door seemed to have no patience before knocking obnoxiously loud. "Gotta go babe, see you later." Louis ran out the door and waved Harry goodbye. "Louis."

"Nick." Nick grabbed Louis by the waist and pulled him into his side. "I knew you and Styles couldn't last that long. It was a matter of time before he gave out on you. A quickie you were, but I can guarantee a quickie you will not be with me." Louis mentally slapped himself for getting himself into this mess. "Yeah, too bad I was the one who called it off." Louis swallowed his lie feeling a tad bit guilty. As they were getting into Nick's car Louis received a text from Harry.

'Getting Niall and Ed, might have to keep him distracted a little longer. Can you do it babe? -Hxx'

Louis looked at Nick from his peripheral vision and didn't see any problem with it.

'yeah sure thing bbs, just keep me updted, wanna get out of there ASAP.-L'

Louis locked his phone and slid it into his pocket. Once they arrived at the restaurant Louis was suddenly happy to be out of Nick's car. "Reservations under Grimshaw." The waitress led Louis and Nick to their table and gave them their menu's "So what happened between you and Harry?" Louis was not ready for this kind of question, he didn't have any kind of answer planned out so that would mean he would have to improvise which might he add, he sucked at that. If you gave him a script he could memorize it within seconds but improv was just a complete downfall for him. "Me and Harry?" Louis muttered. "Yeah I mean you were dating him right?" 

-Meanwhile Harry, Niall, Zayn and Ed- 

"Can you take any longer to pick the lock?" Harry whispered. "I'm trying curly, it isn't very easy, these locks are retarded." Ed finally unlocked the door to Nick's room and all four boys entered before anyone could catch them. They closed the door and locked it once the were all in. :Good thing he lives closer to the pipes, "okay Zayn hop out the window and throw the hose in here." Harry instructed. Zayn lifted the window screen and went outside to get the hose. "Ni, you got the goo?" Niall pulled the jar of goo out of his back pack and placed it on the table. Zayn came back through the window but this time with a hose that had been connected to one of the water pipes in his hands. "Okay let's cover his blanket with the goo." All the boys dipped their hands in the goo and spread it on the under side of Nick's duvet. Once they were done Harry told Ed to get the moldy sandwhich out of Niall's back pack. Harry put his rubber gloves on and took the old nasty smelling sandwhich out of it's ziplock bag and threw it under Nick's bed. Once Harry was done with that he told Zayn to turn the hose on. 

'almost don, u cn wrap it up now, c u in a bit. -Hxx'

Harry sent the message and pointed the house at the ground, Niall and Ed were already packing up and jumping out the window. Harry sprayed the room and kept backing up until he was at the window, he jumped out as he left the hose still running in Nick's room. 

'gd, we r just bout 2 leav anywy. -L'

'txt me whn ur here. gtta turn hose off.-Hxx'

Louis didn't reply but Harry knew he read the message. "And now we wait." Harry sighed as he fixed the bandana that wrapped around his head. "Best prank of the year Harry!" That was just stupendous." Niall exclaimed fist pumping into the air. A few mintues later Louis texted. 

'am here. in the prking lot. bout to go 2 room.-L' 

Harry turned the water off and pulled the hose out of sight and wrapped it back around it's holster. "C'mon lad's he's here!" They ran back to Harry's room laughing and out of breath. They heard the door click and Louis was blushing and ran into Harry's arms quickly. Harry stumbled back a bit caught off guard but once he realized what was going on he wrapped his arms around Louis waist. "What's wrong babe?" Harry whispered into his hair. "He's pissed, he started yelling. He's going to kill you guys, you guys got his record player wet and it's a flood in there." Louis started rambling on and just to get him to shut up Harry slammed his lips onto Louis. Louis melted into Harry's kiss but then he pulled away because of Niall's obnoxious coughing. "I hope you know we'd rather not watch you two make out." Zayn commented. They all erupted into a fit of laughter until there was a loud knock on Harry's door. "Styles open the god damn door!" Harry looked at Zayn, who looked at Niall who looked at Louis. "We've got to hide him." Whispered Ed. "Or we can just tell him the truth." Harry said shyly. "Hell no! We are not getting in trouble for this shit. Go into the bathroom Louis." Zayn pushed Louis in there with Niall to make it seem like Niall was using the bathroom. 

Harry opened the door to an angry Nick Grimshaw. "and what do I owe the pleasure to thee?" Harry smiled. "I know you did it." Harry held his hands up in surrender. "Whatever it is I'm sure I didn't do it. I was with these guys all night, we went out and I mourned over my god awful break up. Which by they way how was the date?" Nick was fuming and decided to solve this by having his fist collide with Harry's jaw. Harry fell back a little before regaining his balance. He smiled back at Nick and cracked his neck a little. "Listen Grimmy, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about so I suggest you get out. Three of us versus one of you, how is that going to end?" Harry looked back at Zayn and Ed who were about ready to trample on Nick. "I know it was you and I will get you back for it, I promise you." 

"By the way Nick, I'll get Perrie back you man whore!" Zayn yelled out as Nick went back to his room. "I hate his fucking guts." Zayn stormed out of the room. "Ni, Lou, it's safe to come out." They both stepped out of the bathroom and Louis ran up to Harry and traced his fingers over his jaw. A bruise was starting to show. "It's nothing babe, sleep with me tonight?" Harry asked. Louis nodded his head and walked the other lads out. "Thanks for everything tonight guys, nice to properly meet you Ed, I hope to see more of you."

"And to you too Louis." Louis closed the door and turned around to face Harry. Harry pulled him onto his lap and they both layed back on the bed. They made out, and laughed and joked and talked. "I have to brush my teeth Haz, let go." Harry let go and made a groan. "Hurry back." Louis went into the bathroom to brush and changed into his pajamas. He went under the covers with Harry and soon they both fell asleep with the company of no one but each other.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mostly about Harry's past.

Day 21

 

It was morning time and Louis woke up in his own bunk. He rubbed the gunk out of his eyes before climbing off the ladder and walking into the bathroom to take a piss. Once he was done he washed his hands, washed his face and brushed his teeth. He unlocked the bathroom and opened the door to a pissed off Zayn. "Hey mate, what's up?" Louis played it off and walked passed Zayn. "Harry's in the hall something about a talk." 

"What do you need Haz?" Harry slowly turned around and smiled at Louis. "Hey babe." He gave Louis a kiss and they walked into Harry's room hand in hand. "thank god it's Saturday." Harry pulled Louis onto his lap and they watched a bit of TV when Louis saw something poking out from under Harry's pillow. When Harry went to the bathroom after a few mintues of Louis spotting the object from under the pillow Louis slowly got up and took the object. It was a family portrait. A little boy with curly hair, jade eyes, dimples as deep as any crater. Next to him was an older girl, black hair, same dimples and more of hazel green eyes. Then there were two adults who Louis assumed were Harry's parents. "What are you looking at?" Louis didn't even hear Harry leave the bathroom so when Louis put the photo behind his back and looked down in guilt Harry made his way to Louis and took the photo from Louis. 

"Come on, let's sit." Louis sat next to Harry on the brown couch and looked down at his hands. 

"I never talk about my family, I lost them when I was 15. It was a tragedy, someone so young didn't deserve it, but it happened. When I was younger I was always close to my sister and my mom. So when I was 15, oh god, it was the most devastating day of my life. For weeks I would stay in my room, I wouldn't eat or sleep or come out, and it was terrible. Back to the story, 3 weeks after my 15th birthday I lost both my sister and my mother in the same day. We were all in the car, my dad, my mom, my sister and I. We were on our way to my Grandma's because she was feeling ill and we needed to spend as much time with her as we could before y'know she passes. Well we visited her and on our way back an 18-wheeler came towards our car, it hit my mom and my sister's side. I was left with a broken leg and a few broken ribs, my dad had suffered from brain trauma, he was left in the hospital and I was left without a mother or sister on my own at 15. When my Dad came back he was a completely different person, but I don't blame him, I was too. He was always mad and he went out drinking a lot, came home drunk many times, he only hit me once but from that day on he promised to stop drinking, then he sent me here. He told me it would be best for me. I met Zayn and Liam on my first day. Niall and Ed came in around the second week of the second term." 

Harry's head was now on Louis lap and Louis was caressing his curls listening inventively. 

"So I go to their grave every year on the day they died. That's only 2 months from now. I've never really went into depth with this story. Thank you Louis for sitting here and listening to me, it's nice to get it off my chest." Louis pressed his lips to Harry's as a respond. "You're wonderful Harry." Louis whispered. Harry fell asleep on Louis lap and Louis kept staring at the photo. How did this broken boy, turn into this boy on his lap, this mysterious boy was no longer a mystery to Louis, he had revealed one of the biggest secrets and Louis thought it would be fair to return the favour, only Louis didn't have a deep secret, Harry already knew almost everything about Louis. 

If there is any confusion about ages, they're all the same age. 

I'm skipping days and months, so don't get all worked up about it. If there are any questions just comment or message me.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis and Harry have their first fight, will things work out for them?

Day 25

"Something tells me that we're in trouble." Niall shivered in the cold air of December. They had yet pulled another prank on Eleanor Calder, someone Harry should avoid at all costs but of course everyone on his list was checked off but her and he could not have that. They pulled the classic prank of filling her room with spiders and crickets. After 15 minutes of waiting they heard a shrieking sound. "Done. We can go now." Harry got up and Niall followed, it had just been them two while the rest of the lads were hanging in Louis and Zayn's dorm room. Niall and Harry had claimed they were getting beer, so they stopped by one of the providers on the campus and bought a case before returning to the dorm room. 

"Ello lads!" Harry threw his arms in the air and slammed himself onto the three other boys sitting on the transfered couch from Harry's room. "Took you so long?" Liam asked. "Ran into Nick, still accusing us of leaking the room." Harry lied. Niall started blushing at something Zayn had whispered to him followed by Louis wiggling under Harry to get out from under his bone crushing weight. "While you're up and at it Donny, please get me a beer." Louis walked over to the counter and got two beers, one for him and one for Zayn since he was the only one who asked. "Thanks mate, I 'ppreciate it loads." Zayn pressed the tip of to the bottle to his lips and took a swig. 

All the boys were now drinking and laughing and it seemed to be the time of their lives. "You two have got to be the cutest." Niall said while he looked at Louis and Harry who were wrapped in each others arms. "I agree mate, you two just seem so infatuated with each other." Louis giggled and Harry started thanking Liam and Niall. "Do you remember in our first year, when Niall transfered?" Liam asked. "As clear a a blue sky." Harry slurred. Niall laughed his head off at the memory of him falling on top of Liam his first day. "I remember Donn'ys first day, I met him naked, nothing but a towel covering the lower region." Zayn erupted in a fit of laughter and Louis face turned into a deep shade of red. "S'that true babe? He met you naked?" Louis nodded his head and bit on his bottom lip. "It was hot and I was dirty and I forgot my clothes outside..." 

Soon all the boys fell asleep, Zayn on the couch Liam and Niall on the floor and Harry and Louis on Zayn's bottom bunk. 

"Louis, Zayn wake up!" Someone was banging on the door, all the boys grumbled, Louis stumbled over the sleeping bodies on the floor before he reached the door. "Eleanor?" Eleanor looked angry, and Louis had a feeling that the boys got angry people coming to their doors a lot. "Louis, I need to talk to you." Louis looked back and saw all the boys sleeping, Harry had moved since Louis left but that was normal. "Okay..." Louis closed the door behind him and followed Eleanor into the hall. "You need to put your boyfriend on a leash." Eleanor growled. "I stayed up all night screaming my lungs off because of him. Last night he put spiders and crickets in my room." Eleanor waited for Louis response but all she got was a yawn. "Louis Tomlinson say something! He needs to be controlled. I'm sick and tired of his jokes, he crossed the line at Nick, and I can't believe you joined him. That was sick but I knew you did it for Zayn so I'm letting you off with a warning, but if Harry keeps this going, everyone will turn against him." 

"I can't stop him Eleanor. I don't know how. It's Harry, that's what he does." Eleanor pushed Louis against the wall. "If you don't stop him I will." She let go of Louis and stormed off. Louis went back to the dorm and closed the door. "What's up?" He saw Zayn at the kitchen counter drinking a cup of coffee. "Uh- y'know the phone rang. It was my mum." Zayn nodded his head clearly seeing through Louis lie. "Didn't hear the phone." Zayn said after a sip. "Yeah, well you were passed out." 

"No, I heard Eleanor knocking on the door, seemed pissed, what's up?" Louis went to the counter and made himself a cup of coffee. "He and Niall made a stop at her dorm before they went to get our beer, they filled her room with crickets and spiders. It's absolutely ridiculous on why he would lie." 

"Well Louis, it's Harry, what else do you expect?" Louis sighed as a response. "How do you keep up with this?" 

________________________________

Day 30 

"If you can't deal with me then why bother dating me!" Harry yelled at Louis. "It's not that I can't deal with you, it's your actions, sometimes you just make stupid decisions and you stick to them. That whole thing with Nick was a stupid act on my part. I should've never agreed to it, but you lying Eleanor was terrible, and you lying about going out with Ed was stupid too!" This was one of their first fights, Louis had finally confronted Harry about his pranks and Harry wasn't taking it too well because who was Louis to walk into his life and tell him to stop. 

"I don't care if everyone turns against me Louis, that's why I have Liam, Niall and Zayn!" Louis looked reinstated, gob smacked, taken back. "And how about me?! I stood by you through tough times Harry, was I just a little toy you went to when you felt lonely?! Or when you needed an extra for a prank. Was that all I was to you?!" Harry took a step closer to Louis " 'was that all I was to you?' seriously Louis. I told you my biggest secret. I can't believe you would even-seriously Louis, I just-no. You're the first person-you know what forget it. If you can't deal with how I do things maybe we should just call it quits."

"That's it? You're going to give up just like that? You're not even going to try and look at it from my point of view. You're just going to 'call it quits'? Just like that?" Louis backed away from Harry this time, trying to fight back his tears. "You can't come into my life and try to change me Louis. It's not fair, I don't change for anyone."

"You could try, for me." Louis whispered. "Goodbye Harry." Louis walked towards the door but Harry called out to him. "Is this it for us?" Louis didn't know what to say, he was half was out the door, he didn't want to leave Harry, he just wanted to cuddle with Harry on the bed and forget everything. "Isn't that what you want?" Louis asked, finally calmed down. "No..." Louis next words came out broke, he finally broke "I don't know what you want Harry. I just don't-I don't know. I don't want to lose you, I just-no. I don't want" He started crying, his short sobs made him barely understandable. "Louis-" Harry ran towards Louis and hugged him. "Please don't ever leave me." Harry mumbled into Louis hair. "Please." 

"Promise me you'll still be here when I wake up?" Harry asked, while carrying Louis to the bed. "I'll still be here when you wake up." 

"Still?" 

"Still." 

"I'm sorry Louis." Harry said before he met the sound of Louis light snores.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

Day 42

"Happy early birthday Louis!" Lottie and Fizzy yelled. Louis had taken Harry home with him for Christmas. The girls were all surrounding Louis and Harry, all smiles. This made Louis warm inside, he knew his sisters loved Harry, and Harry returned the feeling, his mom welcomed Harry like he was already a part of the family so everything was just perfect for Louis. 

"Harry, can we play with your hair?" Phoebe and Daisy asked simultaneously. Harry's hair was styled into a make-do quiff, it was his usual up do when going out, but not when he was with Louis, usually. "Ehm, sure, but we'd have to do it after I take a shower." Phoebe and Daisy mumbled their responses and walked away with heads down low. Harry grabbed his and Louis bag and brought them up to Louis room while Louis followed. They both fell on the bed and smiled at each other. "I'm really glad you're here with me. I didn't think you'd come." 

"Where else would I go? With my family? Oh wait I don't have one." Harry's laughter filled the room, but it wasn't his usual laugh, this laugh had a twang of pain mixed with it. "Harry, don't joke like that." Louis looked sympathetically at Harry and Harry responded by rolling his eyes. "Don't look at me like that Louis. I don't need your sympathy." Harry sat up and Louis joined him. "Yeah, I'm sorry, it's just you're not exactly being humanly natured about you know." Harry scoffed at Louis "About what? You can say it Louis. Say it." Harry demanded. "God Harry, seriously, right now? You're going to start a fight right now." Louis retorted. 

"No. I want you to say it. Say it loud and proud, don't treat me like a five year old who doesn't know what happened to my mom and sister, because hell I know they died. They're dead. They're life got cut short, neither of them deserved it but life is unfair. It should've been me Louis, I deserved it more than both of them did." Harry just snapped, he just broke down, right there in front of Louis, in Louis house, a day before Louis birthday. "Harry, babe-please. Don't say that. No one deserves for their life to be taken away from them, but I'm sure your mom and your sister would want you to live it up to the fullest right now. I know it's tough, but I'm here, you have me Haz, don't every say that you deserved it because you didn't." Louis was now holding Harry in his arms, cradling him, drawing patterns on his back and running his fingers through Harry's hair. "Louis, Harry! Come down for dinner you two!" Jay yelled from downstairs. 

Day 43

"Loubear! Wake up! Happy Birthday Louis!" Four girls were jumping on Louis joined by a massive, curly, lanky lad. "Go away." Louis hid his head under the covers, but it didn't last long when he felt Harry's body on top of his. "Harry, get off of me." 

"Wake up then, it's your birthday we have to celebrate." Louis wiggled under Harry before Harry rolled over and faced Louis, "morning babe." Harry pecked Louis nose and nuzzled his head into Louis neck. They stayed like that until the girls came back and dragged the two boys from bed. When they got downstairs Louis was greeted by many familiar faces, including Zayn, Liam, Niall and Liam. And many others from his last school, Max, Stan, Hannah and Josh. "Lou-eh!" Max pulled Louis into a hug and smiled at him. "You've gotten old mate, got yourself a good man, working the stubble, studying-" 

"trying to major in English." Louis laughed. "At least your trying." Hannah said from behind him. The five friends from before all hugged each other and caught up. Soon Louis went upstairs to take a shower and get dressed into proper clothes for hanging out. When he arrived downstairs for the second time that morning, he saw all eight boys getting along well, but one certain curly headed boyfriend was missing. "Where's Harry?" Louis asked. "He went into the kitchen, think he went to help your mom." Zayn said. 

"You really are a keeper Harry, Louis couldn't do half the things you're doing in the kitchen right now." Jay laughed. "He can be helpful, most times, mostly, maybe sometimes." He heard Harry laughing along with her. "They get along y'know?" Lottie came up beside Louis and hugged him. "Happy birthday big brother." 

"Hey you two, couldn't refrain yourselves from talking about me." Louis said while going into the kitchen. "Hey babe, happy birthday." Harry put down his whisk and went over to give Louis a kiss. "Enough Harry, you have to share him, after all I am his mum, I pushed him out." SHe pulled Louis out of Harry's arms and a new warmth took over his body. "Happy birthday babe, I'm so proud of you, you've come a long way, and I'm so happy to call you my son, you've turned into such a pleasure." Jay gave him a kiss and finally let him go. "Take good care of his for me Harry, like I said, he's turned into a big pleasure for me." Jay and Harry both laughed while Louis blushed.

-later that day-

"Thank you guys for making it, I know how long of a drive it must've been for you three." Louis was saying goodbye to Liam, Niall and Zayn, they said their goodbye's and hugged Louis. 

Stan, Hannah, Max and Josh stayed a couple more hours, they left because it was Christmas eve and they had to go home to their own families. "Santa is coming! Santa is coming!" The twins came down yelling. "Girls, Santa won't be coming unless you two go back to sleep." The girls whined at Jay's response and they went back upstairs. "Okay boys, I know you don't really believe in Santa, so would you two help me with the presents." 

Day 44  
Christmas Day

Once they opened their presents they all drank hot chocolate and gathered around the fire place. "Uhm Louis I have a birthday/christmas present for you. Thought I would just give it to you now rather than yesterday so you can open it with the rest of your family." Harry pulled out a box but Jay stopped him. "Harry, we have something for you first." Harry nodded his head and pushed the box back into his pocket. 

"You're part of the family now Harry, I know it's not much but we just want you to know you're welcome whenever and not just when you're with Louis." Jay put a box into Harry's hand, he opened it and he saw a house key. "Welcome home Harry." Jay smiled and hugged Harry. Who knew such a simple gift would make Harry melt, Harry was literally in tears, to be welcomed into the Tomlinson family was more than he could ask for, to be accepted by someone that wasn't dead. "Jay-Louis-Girls, thank you so much. I can't tell you how much this means to me." He smiled and hugged all the girls and even the two babies. 

"Here Louis, it's not much but-" 

"Oh shut up Harry, I honestly wouldn't care, even if it was a dust bunny that you picked up five seconds ago I would accept it and put it in a display case." Harry kissed Louis and placed the small box in Louis hand. When Louis opened it, his jaw dropped, it was a bracelet with with his and Harry's initials engraved into the silver band. On the inside of it read 'Still.' "Harry, it's absolutely gorgeous." Jay and the girls smiled, it was a simple gift, all their gifts were simple but held meaning to the heart, and that's all anyone could ever ask for.

"Oh and Harry, I'll still be here for you no matter what." 

 

Day 57

 

They were back in school, exhausted and worn out. The days seemed to drag on since the New Year. Zayn and Perrie worked things out and got back together, Liam and Sophia seemed to get together well and Niall was just Niall, care free Niall. 

"Okay class, this essay is your first essay of the year, survival of the fittest, human nature, savage versus civilization...." Mr. Shaw seemed to get more and more boring each day, but Louis still found him a genius and found interest in everything he said. Once the bell rang, Harry and Louis walked out of class together. "Man, his class sucks." Harry sighed. "I still find him a genius, he's still my favourite teacher on this campus." Louis smiled and walked to the patch of grass in the quad. "Less than a month Lou." Louis knew exactly what Harry was talking about, so Louis just played with Harry's curls while Harry put his head in Louis lap. 

"I need a smoke." Harry sighed. "It can wait, I don't need you dying on me anytime soon." 

"I don't smoke for fun Louis, in fact I hate it, but it was never for fun or the cool or the stress. It was for the killing, the slow killing." 

 

There is a reference to the book 'Lord of the Flies' by William Goulding. It's a really good book, but it may be really hard to understand, if you have the patience I recommend it.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

Day 57

Once again, another fight, it's been happening recently between the two boys. Hope was becoming lost for the both of them, they were faltering and they both knew it, how were they to hold it together when both of them were giving up?

Day 60

Harry had been missing for three days now, Louis was panicking along with all the other boys. They were all gathered in Zayn and Louis room tracing steps and finding where Harry could be. They've already checked all of Harry's favourite places (including the lake) and he wasn't there. "I may have one more place, but its risky, I would have to call my mum." Louis told the boys. "Why would you call your mum, mate, I don't think he's the one to go to your mum for help." Niall pitched in. 

"Hello mum- yeah I've got a bit of a problem- yeah, -he is?-that's great! I'll come over with the other boys.-oh, but, he is? tell him I miss him, please mum- okay bye. Love you, take good care of him for me." 

"He's at my mum's." Louis dug his face in his hands in relief. Liam patted Louis back and comforted him along with the other boys. That night they all spent the night in the tiny dorm room. 

Day 62 

"Harry?" He felt arms around his waist and met the face of his gorgeous boyfriend. "Harry, is that you?" Louis almost fell out of bed until the arms tightened their grip, and pulled them closer. "Harry? Please, is that you?" 

"Yes, it is." He grumbled. "Wake up Harry, can we talk?" Louis shook Harry's half-awake body trying to get him to wake up until he heard Zayn. "Shut up Louis, this can wait til the morning." Louis stopped and removed Harry's arms from around his waist. He pulled out the extra blanket from the side of his bed and and slept on the couch. 

"Louis wake up." Louis woke up to Zayn and Liam surrounding him on the couch. "Where's Harry?" was the first thing he managed to get out of his mouth. "I don't know, I was just about to ask you." Zayn said. Louis quickly jumped up from the couch and ran fingers through his tangled hair. "Let's just go to class, we'll worry about this later." Liam and Zayn both waited for Louis to get ready and they all went to class. By the time English came around Harry wasn't there. 

Louis then had free period where he went to patch of grass where he and Harry would usually sit. "Wassup loner?" He looked up and saw Eleanor Calder. "Hey Eleanor." Eleanor sat down beside Louis and took a drink from her water bottle. "Still moping around, eh?" 

"I'm not moping, he came back last night, he left some time in the morning when I went to sleep." Eleanor laughed and patted Louis knee. "Listen, whatever it is I hope you two work things out. You two are actually really cute together, as much as it hurts for me to say it, but I did." Eleanor and Louis continued talking for the rest of their free period (technically Louis free period and Eleanor's ditch period), they talked about Louis and Harry's relationship, Eleanor and Nick's attempted relationship and other things. 

"Well I'll see you around Louis." Eleanor got up and Louis followed. Louis went to his drama class and sat in the back as per usual. Once drama was done, Louis went back to his dorm room and took a long nap, which was really needed. 

Day 64

When Louis entered English that day he saw Harry, in his usual seat. He looked all tired, bags under his eyes, his hair was all over the place and his grip on the desk was extremely tight judging by the way his knuckles were white. Louis decided to talk to him after class, so he sat down in his usual seat and listened throughout the lesson. Once the bell rang, Louis quickly got up and followed Harry. They walked side by side and sat down in the patch of grass. "Hey." Louis whispered. "Where've you been? I've been worried sick about you." Harry looked at Louis, stared blankly at him, no emotion, no expression. "Harry, please." Harry didn't say anything, he just pulled Louis into a bone crushing hug. "I missed you." He whispered into Harry's curls. "I missed you too." Harry said back. "Can we go smoke?" Harry whispered. Louis usually wouldn't encourage Harry but right now, he just wanted to get away from everyone. 

They were on the swings by the lake, sitting there in silence. "Harry where did you go?" Louis broke the silence. "I visited my Dad." 

"How did it go?" Harry laughed and looked at Louis. "How do you think?" Louis shrugged his shoulders and watched as Harry put the cigarette to his lips. "It was alright, I mean we talked and caught up." Harry looked at Louis and sighed. "So, what are we now? I mean we kinda like separated on the time I was gone." 

"We never called quits." Louis looked up at Harry. "So you're still mine?" Harry tilted his head to the side and Louis nodded. "I'm still yours." Harry held his arms out and Louis sat on his lap and engulfed him into a hug. "I'm tired of fighting." Harry said. "same."


	17. Chapter Seventeen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains sensitive material. Just prepare yourself I guess.

Day 68  
February 1st

"Happy Birthday Harry!" All the boys were in Harry's bedroom, they had a cake and a balloon and a banner that read 'to the best prankster on campus or maybe ever' Harry laughed and thanked them. It was a school day, but all the boys ditched for Harry's birthday and went down to the beach. It was a 3o minute drive from their school, Louis drove, Zayn rode shotgun and all the other boys were in the back messing around. 

"It's too cold to go swimming, what are we doing here?" Harry asked. "Hanging out, ditching school, being free-" Niall interrupted Zayn's thoughtful speech "Smoking weed." All the boys busted into laughter and they pulled out the joints. They do this every year on one of the boys birthday and this year happened to be Harry's.

Once they all smoked they were all shits and giggles. Louis and Harry were practically groping each other while the other boys cheered them on. Once it died down, they all grabbed the food they packed. "Damn, best day ever." Harry smiled, dimpled deep and teeth showing. 

"You guys are the bestest friends ever." It was obvious they were drunk, everyone except Louis. "I have the best boyfriend, the best friends and everything is perfect. I mean perfectly perfect and peachy and Louis I love you." Harry pulled Louis onto his lap and peppered him with kisses. "Harry you're drunk." Harry giggled into Louis chest and looked up at Louis with glossy eyes "I love you Louis." Louis sat there shocked, this isn't how he imagined Harry telling him that he loves him for the first time. Especially when Louis would remember it and Harry wouldn't. "Thanks Haz." Was all Louis could say back. 

 

Day 69

All the boys were hungover, so Louis took care of them in the morning and went to class after. He left aspirin by each of the boys and a glass of water. During first period all the boys were awake with headaches. "Thanks Louis you're amazing." Louis brought out wet rags and helped them to the trash can and wiped their mouths from the vomit. "God you're amazing." Niall said. 

That's exactly how they spent the day, in bed while Louis took care of them

Day 70

"Seven more days until the anniversary." Harry told Louis. "Don't think about it babe. I'll go with you if you want me to." Harry shook his head. "This is something I have to do alone. I mean besides my Dad, but this is mine and his thing, I just don't want him to feel like you're intruding." Louis nodded his head in understanding. "That's fine." 

"Listen Louis, I just need to thank you for everything. You're a truly amazing person." Louis laughed and kissed Harry, "you too babe." They stayed in bed for the rest of the day watching movies and making out. 

Day 73

Harry and Louis do their regular schedule. They have the boys over after classes and they hang out.

Day 76

One more day until the anniversary and Harry is totally forgetting about it. 

Day 77

The death anniversary of Anne and Gemma. 

6:00 p.m.

The phone is ringing out in the hall. Louis goes and decides to answer it. 

"Hello?" 

"Hello. May I please speak with Harry Styles?" 

"yes sir." 

Louis goes and gets Harry inside the dorm room. "Harry someone want's to talk to you on the phone." Harry gets up, pecks Louis and goes to the phone out in the hall. 

"Hello?" 

"Harry? Where were you today?"

"Dad?"

"Son, did you forget?"

"No, I mean, yes, but, it slipped my mind with school and everything. I'm coming right now."

"I left Harry, you'll have to go there alone." 

Harry said good bye to his father. He joined Louis back in the dorm room and decided to drink. Louis found it strange because by the time Liam, Zayn and Niall joined them Harry already chugged down five beers. "Mate, you didn't even wait?" Niall joked. "Guys I have to go somewhere, I'll be back." Harry got up and Louis followed. "Where are you going babe?" 

"I have to leave, I'll be right back, I promise. I love you, forever and ever okay? Don't forget it Louis, You're such an amazing person. You've been such a huge impact on me and I don't want you to ever forget that. I love you. I love you so much. Still?" Louis thought it was the beer taking over his body but he felt like somewhere in there Harry meant his words. "Still. I love you Harry, hurry back soon, be careful okay?" Harry smiled and gave Louis one last kiss before making his way out of the building. 

"Where'd he go?" Zayn asked. "Probably to get more smokes and beer." Louis sat down on the couch before drinking a beer himself. "You let him go alone?" Liam asked. "Yeah, he looked like he didn't want me there with him." They all agreed. 

-an hour later- 

"Guys, I think we should look for Harry, it's been an hour." All the boys got up, they didn't drink much without him because they were waiting for Harry to come back with the beers. "yeah, let's go see if he crashed out in the quad or something."

-after the search-

"Guys, I can't find him!" Louis cried out. "Louis it's okay, it's fine. We'll find him. What was the last conversation you had with him before he started drinking." Louis thought back to the phone call. "Well we were talking about our english essays and then he got a phone call." 

"From who?" Liam asked. "Some man, I'm not exactly sure." They all went back to Louis and Zayn's dorm, worried. There was a a loud bang on the door, Louis looked up in hope it was Harry, but when Niall answered it Eleanor and Perrie came into their room out of breath and tears running down their faces. "Front office, you guys have to go there right now. Everyone's there, but they're asking for you four." All the boys were in shock, once they realized what had hit them they made a run for the front office and there was surely a crowd and police cars. Something told Louis that it was Harry, but he denied it, he wanted to not believe it, but deep down in the pit of his stomach he knew this had something to do with Harry. 

"Hello lads, I'm aware that you guys haven't heard the news yet." The principal was in front of all the four boys. "What news?" Zayn said angrily. "Please come into my office." All the four boys entered the office, worried, because they all knew what this was about. 

"I am really sorry to inform you-"

 

And that was it, that was it for all of them.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

Louis didn't realize he was yelling until Zayn pressed Louis head against his own chest. "What do you mean he's gone?!" Liam yelled. "I'm sorry, I know how close you four boys were, there was a large amount of alcohol in his system when he stepped into the car, the police said he was on his way back here when he drove into the truck." Louis pulled away from Zayn. "His mum, it was their anniversary today, he forgot all about it." All of the boys requested that they take them to the hospital to get one last glance at Harry. 

-Hospital-

"Yes, you may see him, but right now his body is being evaluated by the doctors, we'll call you in before we put him into the morgue." The four boys sat in the waiting room, emotionless. "Is Louis Tomlinson here?" Louis looked up and saw a man, tall, brown hair, a bit of a beard growing, and glowing green eyes, the same eyes that Louis would never meet again. Louis got up and walked towards the man. "Hello Louis, my name is Des Styles." Louis couldn't contain the tears. "Hi Louis." Des said in a kind voice. "Hi." Louis mumbled through the snot and tears. 

"The first thing Harry said to me when he entered my apartment 'I left him' I was confused at first. He told me everything about you two. He hasn't been that happy in a while. It was nice to have my son back, but not everything lasts forever. As soon as something gets better life takes it away from you. That's exactly what it did to Harry. He was at his happiest point, and now he's gone." Des started sobbing along with Louis. "Non of them deserved it. Now I'm left alone, I don't know how I can go on, I've lost everyone, I've lost my family." Louis wrapped his arms around Des, because in all honesty, Des needed the comfort more than anyone. He lost his wife and his daughter on this day and now his son. It's a tragedy, and Louis holds Des on a high pedestal right now. "Louis, thank you. Thank you for keeping him strong, thank you so much for being there when I couldn't."

"Des, it's not me you should be thanking, I was only there for a part of his life, you should go and thank his true friends who were there since the beginning." Louis cried some more but was snapped out of it when the doctor called Harry's name. All the boys got up and walked back with the doctor. "Let's go in one by one." Liam suggested. 

Liam went first.

-Liam's Time in the Room-

Liam hadn't cried at all, not until he saw Harry's unconscious body on the hospital bed. Harry was pale, a lifeless. "Hey Haz. Can't believe it. I can't believe you're actually gone. I don't think it-I just don't think you deserved it. I mean no one does, even you told me that. I'm sorry for holding you back from everything, but it was for your own good. I should've held you back today, the one time I didn't do it, the one time I could've but I didn't you end up here. It's hard not to put blame on anyone, but if it were that way, I could be the one to blame for not stopping you, Louis for not stopping you from drinking so much, Zayn for taking so long and us getting there late, or Niall for stalling. But there is no one to blame Harry. No one at all." Liam paused and stared at Harry. "I just don't think, I mean, you out of all people. I always tell you to be careful, you never listened. I know you can't here me, but maybe when you're up there you'll look out for all four of us. We'll try to go on, because I know that's what you want. I'll look out for Louis for you, I'll make sure he doesn't do anything, I'll keep everyone sane even though I'm breaking as much as everyone on the inside." Liam wiped the tears away and planted a kiss on Harry's forehead. 

And with that Niall was next. 

-Niall's Time in the Room-

Niall broke down as soon as he entered. Niall the most sensitive one out of all of them. No words came out of his mouth until he found the courage to talk to his dead body. It started off with a laugh. "Remember that one prank, oh god. Harry you were so full of life, and now I'm talking to your dead body. This is ridiculous, make sure your ghost is looking after me and keeping other ghosts away from me. I'm still a big believer in those kinds of things. Have fun up there mate. You didn't deserve this. Stay golden going through the gates of heaven or hell mate. I'll see you there some time." Niall broke down again, he tried to keep it as light hearted as he could because if he went into depth he wouldn't be able to contain it. 

-Zayn's time in the Room-

No words, no tears, no emotion. Zayn just sat in the chair provided by the hospital, he stared at Harry's body. This was unbelievable to Zayn, his best friend was now gone. "I'm not going to talk to your dead body. This is just ridiculous. But I will. I will because I didn't get a proper fucking goodbye from you. You left without a fucking goodbye. You got into that fucking car knowing you were intoxicated. Are you stupid? Of course you are, you wouldn't have done it if you weren't. You left me without a goodbye Harry. How the hell do you leave someone without a goodbye. I can't believe you would do this to me. I'm being selfish I know, but fuck you. Fuck you and your death wish. I just don't want to believe this happened to you." Zayn broke down at this time, the tears cascaded down his face, non stop. He pressed his head against Harry's arm, mumbling multiple apologies and strings of swear words. "You fucking idiot. Have fun up there." Zayn pressed his lips to Harry's cheeks and ran his fingers through his curly hair one last time. 

-Louis Time in the Room-

The room was dark. Louis knew the other boys were closer, but Harry had a part of him that Louis could never get back. A part of him died with Harry, a part that only Harry owned. "Your last words to me were I love you. I mean you were drunk, but you still said them. Oh god Harry, why did you leave me? Why did you leave all of us? I don't know what to say. I just wish you'd wake up and wrap your arms around me and tell me that this isn't real. That none of this is real. You took a part of me that I can never take back. A part of me died with you, a part I can never take back because you stole it and killed it." Louis let out more tears before speaking again. "You didn't deserve this, no matter how much you thought you did, you didn't. No one deserves death, especially not someone like you. You're so young, you had a whole life ahead from you. But you ended it by getting into the car, I should've seen it coming." Louis paused. 

"I guess you'll always be a part of me. I'll still love you even when you're not there. Still." Louis pressed his lips against Harry's pale ones and gave him one last kiss. "Still." Louis cried. 

_____________________________

"Lou wake up. Loubear. Lou-eh, Lou. Babe, wake up." Louis woke up startled he saw Harry right beside him. "Harry?" Harry smiled at Louis and kissed him. "Hi babe." Louis looked at Harry startled. "No, you're dead. You can't be here." Louis ripped the blankets off his body and fell onto the floor. "Louis babe, I'm here. You were having a nightmare. You wouldn't stop screaming." Harry grabbed Louis and pulled him onto his lap. "Babe, shh. I'm still here. I promise." Louis looked into Harry's eyes. "Still?" Harry nodded and kissed Louis. "Still." 

 

_______________________________

Day 1

"Louis!" Louis shot up and looked straight at Zayn. "Where Harry?!" Louis yelled. "Where is he!?" Louis was in tears and Zayn just pulled him into his chest. "Shhh, it was a dream." Zayn whispered. "No, he was here. He was here with me, it wasn't true." Zayn just caressed Louis hair. "No Louis, it happened, he's gone. I'm sorry." Louis kept shaking his head and tried to pull away from Zayn. "No he's still here. He promised me." 

"Louis, it was a dream." Zayn whispered. "It was so real." Louis cried some more. It felt so real. It felt like Harry was really there, but in reality Harry was gone. Now Louis wishes he never woke up. "Zayn, what happened?" 

"It was a dream babe. It was all a dream." Zayn waited until Louis went back to sleep before going back to his bed and falling back asleep. 

Day 4

School seemed more quiet, everyone stared at Louis and gave them their condolences. English was just terrible, Louis kept looking back expecting to see a certain curly haired lad, but nothing. Louis got nothing. When the bell rang Louis rushed out of the classroom and walked out into the quad. "Louis!" Louis turned around and saw Ed. "Hey Ed." Ed pulled Louis into a long hug. 

"I can't believe he's gone." Ed said. Louis pulled away and nodded his head. "yeah, he's gone." Louis waved at Ed not wanting the conversation to go into depth. Louis walked back to his dorm room where he saw Perrie and Eleanor. "Hey bebz." Eleanor pulled Louis into a comforting hug and Louis broke down. "Shh, Zayn told us about your dreams, it's okay Lou. He's watching over you. I'm sure he wants you to live on with your life. But we don't expect you to get over it so fast." Eleanor looked at Louis and there was no sympathy in her eyes, Louis actually appreciated it, he didn't want people feeling bad for him. "Thanks El." 

Day 7

It's been a whole week, Zayn, Liam and Niall were going to go out that night to go clubbing. "You sure you don't want to go Louis?" Niall asked. "No. I'm going to drive down to Doncaster to go see me mum. I need to tell her everything." Zayn looked at Louis and shook his head. "I don't want you going alone." Louis sighed. "Zayn I'm fine. I know how to drive." 

"It's night time Louis, I'm still uneasy about everything." Zayn explained. "I agree." Both Liam and Niall said in unison. "I'm going, alright? I'll be fine." Louis grabbed his bag and left the three in the room. 

He was on the road. Once he reached his house it was 1:00 in the morning. He opened the door quietly and saw Jay sitting in the living room. "I was expecting you, didn't know if you were coming tonight or tomorrow morning." Jay stood up and gave Louis a hug. And for the 100th time he broke down. "He's gone mom. He's gone." Louis wasn't able to admit it this whole week until now. "He's gone." 

"Louis, babe, when's the funeral?" Louis looked down at his shoes. "tomorrow, in Cheshire." Jay nodded her head and pulled Louis close to her again. "I lost him mom. The one thing I never wanted to lose." Jay hugged him even tighter. "We'll drop you off tomorrow, we'll go too okay? Get some rest, you look like you haven't slept in days." 

"That's because I haven't." Jay brought Louis bags upstairs to his room, Louis stopped right at the door. "I can't go in there." Louis whispered. "Let's go to my room Loubear." Jay turned around and they both walked to Jay's room. 

That night Louis slept with his mum.


	19. Chapter Nineteen

Day 8  
-Funeral-

Louis and his family piled out of their car and walked towards the small crowd which contained of Harry's dad, Liam, Zayn, Liam, Niall, Ed, Eleanor, Nick and maybe some of Harry's other family. "Hello Des." Louis shook Des' hand and introduced him to his mum and sisters.

"Let us commend Harry Styles to the mercy of God......" The priest spoke. Once Harry's coffin was being lowered into the ground Louis wanted to run over there and stop them. Stop them from taking the one person Louis could love. Zayn squeezed Louis shoulders and Louis looked at Zayn. Zayn was also crying, reality struck all of them, Harry was gone. "We therefore commit Harry Styles body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life." 

"Any further speeches?" Zayn went up to the podium and pulled out a piece of paper. "Oh lord, where do I begin? Harry was more than a great friend, he was a great son, a good boyfriend, and one of the best pranksters. Harry was known for those pranks, but he was more than that. He was too good of a person to be torn away from life, to be torn away from his loved ones. Harry once told me 'no matter how evil you believe to be, no one deserves a life to be taken away from them. But if there was no death, there would be no feelings and empty pits of darkness.' Everything Harry said had meaning. Never has he waisted a breath in saying something absolutely absurd. Harry was a meaningful person. One of the most admirable person I knew. I loved Harry as a bro, and as a friend." Zayn stepped off the podium, no one clapped, just looked at Zayn and admired his speech. 

Louis was next, but Louis couldn't find the courage to get up there. When he finally found a little he stepped onto the podium and began his speech. "I know I haven't known Harry as long as everyone here. But I can surely say, he played a big part in my life, he taught me many things in life. I loved him as much as anyone else did here, and I still do. Harry will always hold a place in our hearts, he always wanted to make a mark on the world even though he didn't he made a big mark in our lives and that's all we need." Louis stepped off and joined everyone else in the prayers. 

Once everyone left Zayn and Louis stayed behind. "Hey bud, how's everything?" Zayn and Louis sat down on the ground right beside Harry's grave. "How do you think?" Louis started picking at the grass around him. "Mate, we need to make the best of everything. It's what Harry wants. He would want us to move on, let's not be depressed at his grave. I'm sure his spirit doesn't want that." Zayn and Louis both laughed and took a deep breath. "Want a smoke?" Zayn asked. "Sure." Zayn pulled out two cigarette's and they both did the one thing Harry loved and hated more than life; smoking.

 

"Thanks for taking me home Zayn, are you sure you're okay to drive back?" Zayn pulled up in Louis driveway and nodded his head. "Yeah, s'no biggy." Louis thanked Zayn once more and entered his house where he saw his mum and the girls. "Hey baby." Jay pulled Louis into a hug, then the other girls joined. "We love you Louis." Fizzy said. "I love you too." 

Day 18

They were all sitting in English. Harry's death was removed from everyone's minds except for the four boys who were still upset. "Louis, may I see you after class?" Mr. Shaw asked. Once the bell rang Louis went straight to Mr. Shaw's desk. "Yes sir?" Mr Shaw took out a stapled essay and handed it to Louis. "It's Harry's last essay, thought you'd want it. It's an amazing essay, you should give it a read. He really has a way with his words." Louis took the essay and thanked Mr. Shaw. 

Louis made his way to the grassy patch and sat down. He took the essay out from his bag and started reading it. "What do you have there?" Eleanor sat down next to Louis. "Harry's last essay." Louis stuffed it back in his bag and looked at Eleanor. "I think the principal is going to ask you and the boys to clean out Harry'r room soon. He's giving you guys time to get yourselves together but I'm just going to be blunt because you guys can't keep mourning over it. It's time to get over it." Louis stood up. "It's not just a break up where you can just get over it El! He's dead, he's never coming back. I think I at least deserve some self pity! All of us do. He was a big part in us. He was more than just another guy El! He was loved by many people, I know you didn't exactly get along with him, but please don't tell me to just get over it." Louis grabbed his bag and walked off. 

Day 25

"Boys, I'm going to ask you four to clean out his room, it's been almost a month and we have other students coming in." The boys nodded their heads and went to Harry's room. It was dark, and it still had Harry's scent. "Shall we?" Liam asked. "We shall." Niall started off with the bed and Liam got the bathroom. Zayn and Louis started cleaning out his desk. "Guys look what I found." Niall pulled the familiar brown book from under Harry's mattress. "His prank book. We were never allowed to touch it." They all surrounded Niall and questioned whether to open it or not. "I don't think we should." Liam looked away but then looked back. "I don't know, it might just be more pranks." They opened the book and read page one which was crossed out, page two through fifteen were the same. Page sixteen happened to be different. 

'It was my fault.' Was written on it. Page seventeen had Zayn's name on it. Page eighteen had Nialls. Page nineteen had Liam. Page twenty through twenty-seven were more pranks. "What does this mean?" Niall asked. "I don't know." 

They read more of it. The last page was the last prank Harry wanted to pull, but it was only then that they realized they were the prey of his ultimate prank.


	20. Chapter Twenty

Day 45 

45 days without Harry, Louis has gone 45 days without him. That's more than half of the time they dated. Louis hated thinking about Harry, he wanted to wipe every memory away, Louis blamed Harry's death on himself. For every time he thought of Harry he hated himself even more. Louis was locked up inside his and Zayn's room, Louis had reoccurring nightmares of Harry, every night he fell asleep he would awaken to Zayn yelling at him to wake up. As everyone else is getting better, Louis was getting worse. He knew he should at least try to move on, but it's easier said than done. Louis misses classes on a daily basis, very rarely does he ever leave his room nowadays. He hates how people only mourned over Harry for a minute and continued on with their lives, he wanted Harry to be remembered, he wanted Harry to know he deserved a few days of silence, he wanted Harry to know he was loved. 

But Harry was loved, not by many but by the people who mattered to him the most. So why bother adding onto it? Because Harry deserved all the love in the world. Harry deserved more than he could give, but non of that mattered because he was gone. Gone from everyone's mind but the people who loved him. Harry implanted a special place in most people's heart, he had that effect on people, once you got to know Harry, you instantly fell in love with him. That's just how he came off as. So, no Louis could not move on yet. He wanted Harry and only Harry. But Harry was gone, and Louis reminded himself every day and hated himself even more for it. 

Day 48 

"Don't you think you should go to class now Louis? You've missed quite a few days." Zayn was now trying to get Louis out of the room, but it seemed impossible for almost everyone. "What's the point?" Louis mumbled. Zayn gave up and walked away. "I'll pick us up some dinner, I'll probably have Perrie come over." Zayn left and closed the door behind him. 

Louis spent that day under the covers, in the dark. All alone. 

Day 53

Louis went to class today, he had missed a little over a week. "Nice of you to join us Mr. Tomlinson." Mr. Shaw called out in the middle of a lecture. He continued on and Louis put his head down on the desk. Once it was time to leave Louis walked back to the dorm room with Niall. Louis liked Niall. Niall never brought up anything about Harry, Niall understood it was a sensitive subject for Louis, Niall kept it casual between them two even though he knew Louis was hurt inside. "So, last week, I met this girl, her name is Tara. She's a sweet heart, but maybe a little too sweet. But she's really cute and she's really shy which makes her 1000 times more attractive. But I'm still not sure if she likes me or not. I mean we've talked like four times already, is it too soon to ask her out on a date?" Louis shook his head as a reply. "I think you should go for it." 

Louis stopped by his and Zayn's room before following Niall into his. "Free period is always the best period." Niall kicked his shoes off and turned the small TV on. "I know I don;t usually talk about things like this with you but it has to be asked. Not only am I worrying but everyone else around you. I mean it would be stupid to ask if you're alright because clearly you aren't, but like I mean, in all honesty like, I don't mean to insult you, but I think it's best if you like, you know, see a therapist." It was silent. Niall didn't dare look up to meet eyes with Louis and Louis didn't bother to even look at Niall. "I mean, if that's what you think." Was all Louis said. 

"That's it? You're not going to like hit me or anything." Niall looked at Louis and waited for at least a slap. "Would you prefer I do?" Louis asked. "Uh no, not really." 

"I mean I could if you wanted me to." Niall laughed and Louis just looked at him. "No s'all good, no need for any physical contact mate. But in all seriousness you'll do it?" Louis shook his head. "I didn't say I'd do it. I said if that's what you think.I'm not going to see damn therapist, I'm not mental." Louis explained. "I'm just getting over a death, I mean how else should I take it? This hasn't exactly been a cruise for me, or anyone else, people cope with things differently. I'm just taking longer to get over it." Louis got up from the couch and opened the door "I have to go I'll see you later." And with that Louis was gone. 

Day 55

Louis had skipped another day of school, he didn't want to leave nor did he want to stay inside. He went out into the hallway to find it empty, he walked until he reached the familiar door that once was Harry Styles' dorm room. The room where Louis and Harry would have full on make out sessions, where Louis and Harry would have a quickie before and after classes, the room where Louis and Harry would talk and share secrets and smoke and drink and laugh. Louis turned the door knob and to his surprise it opened. No one had moved in yet, but it looked new. The bed was made, the brown tattered couch was gone, most of the rug stains were removed and there was not a single trace of Harry ever being in this room. Louis closed the door and sat on the floor which still had a faint smell of smoke on it. Louis found himself curled up in a ball crying, letting it all out once again. How was he supposed to cope with this? How was he supposed to 'just move on'? Louis couldn't do this alone, but he had to, for Harry. Louis wiped the tears and went back to his room to grab a jacket. He got Zayn's car keys and left a note. 'went out for a bit, took your car, thanks loads. -Louis' 

Louis started up the car and drove away from the university. Once Louis got to the cemetery he quickly locked the car and ran to Harry's grave, which was right next to his mother and sister. Louis sat down on the grass and put the flowers that he had picked up down on on the grave stone. "Hey Haz, thought I'd stop by for a bit. Haven't been down here in a while anyways. Did I tell you we found your brown journal? Couldn't believe your last prank, broke our hearts a bit that you would have this planned. That you would try to kill yourself the night your mum died. That's not exactly the way to prank a person, but I never knew what went through your mind. I could never really tell. I don't know how to do this. I just don't. I don't know how to cope with you being gone. I can't fathom the thought of it, sometimes I wake up thinking you'll be right there. I'm losing it, I'm hanging by a thread." Louis took a pause, it was then he realized he was sobbing.

"I'm pathetic. I can't even talk without fucking crying. God, I'm such a loser. I miss you. You should know that I really do. I mean, fuck Harry, there's just so much we planned for the future, we were planning on getting a house together, buying a grand piano, getting a cat, eventually getting married, we had it all layed out. Why did you leave all of a sudden? Why would you want to take your own life away? Why would you want to leave everyone that loves you? You left me Harry, you left me all alone and I don't know what to do anymore. Everyone tells me to move on but I can't, I just can't. It's only been almost two months, I can't move on now. The memory is still fresh. You left. I should've seen it coming, I blame myself for it. For you being gone, if I had gone with you I could've prevented it and you could still be here. But I didn't, I wasn't a knight in shining armour, I was being Louis, I was being oblivious Louis." Louis wiped the tears away and laughed a little.

"Remember that one time, you were chasing me down the hall way and you fell on top of me and we got in trouble for being out past curfew? One of my favorite memories of us, was the day we first met and you took me to the lake to show me the reflection of the moon. I will never forget how beautiful it looked, because the most beautiful person was standing right next to me at one of the most beautiful things I've ever witnessed. I will never forget that day, or any other day we spent together, whether it was spent arguing or sleeping, I won't forget it." 

"I won't ever forget it because I still love you. I still do. Still."


	21. Chapter Twenty One

One Year from Harry's death

Uni was finally done and Louis was working as an English teacher at the local Junior High. The school was only 15 minutes away from Harry's grave and 10 minutes away from Louis new apartment. Louis still kept in contact with the four boys but unfortunately they all went their separate ways. Without Harry there, they all grew apart. Louis was driving to Harry's grave, it was one year since he died and Louis still did not know how to cope with it, because so much had happened within the whole year. 

Once Louis arrived he saw the four boys already standing there. "Hello lads." They all pulled Louis into a hug and smiled. "Hey there Lou, long time no see." Liam greeted him. "Same for you." There were flowers on Harry's grave and his mother's and his sister's. All four boys were brought back to the memories they shared with Harry. They all had a quick smoke before saying goodbye. Louis stayed longer of course. Louis visited Harry's grave at least once a month, he was still deeply upset about it, and still blamed himself but he was coping with it better than he had 10 months ago. "Work is stressing me out Haz, there's just so much one can handle." Louis laughed to himself. "I've tried your remedy of going to have a drink, ended up crying myself to sleep that night, couldn't go to work the next day because of everything. Memories came flooding back like a rapid flood." Louis continued on with his speech until it was dark. When he realized it was 12:00 he said good bye and walked back to his car until he was stopped. 

"Mr. Tomlinson?" Louis turned around and saw one of his students. "Darrel, what are you doing here?" Darrel was one of Louis quiet kids, did his work, left the class in a blur. "Visiting me mum, She's been gone for five years now, what are you doing here?" Louis didn't want to give out his life to his student on his sexuality. "Visiting a really close loved one of mine, died exactly a year and a day ago." Louis caught the frown of his student. "Why do the good people have to die Mr. Tomlinson, you seem to know about a lot of things." This was the one question Louis could never answer himself, he wondered, but he could never give himself an answer. 

"I don't know Darrel, they like to take away what we love most from us." Louis answered. "They?" Darrel asked. "The angels." Darrel gave Louis and hug before his Dad was calling him. "See you tomorrow Mr. Tomlinson." Louis waved and went back to his own car where he broke down. Couldn't contain the tears anymore, so he just let it all slip out from his eyes. "Still." He whispered to himself.

Day 366

In class the next day Darrel gave Louis a flower with a note 'sorry for your loss Mr. Tomlinson, but at the end of every tunnel is a light.' Louis smiled at the thought. But Louis knows that some people never make it to the end of the tunnel to see the light. He sat down in his desk as the room started to flood with children. 

When Louis got home he checked the mail. He saw an envelope from Eleanor, someone he hadn't talked to in a really long time. 

'Dear Louis,

Saw you leaving the cemetery yesterday. I don't mean to sound like a stalked or anything. Heard you're an English teacher now, how's that working out for you? You won't be able to send anything back because I move a lot and I can't stick to one address. Long story short, I should've done better in Uni. I found something I think you'd want. I don't know whether it would be a sentimental item for you or not, but it's taped to the back of this note. Uh, miss you loads Tommo, next time you visit Harry send him my prayers and love. 

-Eleanor C.xx'

Louis flipped the page to see a another paper taped to it. Louis closed the envelope and didn't bother to read the other paper, he knew it was by Harry and he didn't want to read it. All of Harry's things were kept in a box in Louis closet. There were a few picture around Louis flat of him and Harry, he didn't mind them because it still felt like Harry's home too. Like they could still be living together. Louis had some of Harry's clothing items hanging in his closet, which Louis would sometimes wear to sleep. Louis kept Harry's beanie that still smelt like Harry in a drawer hidden. Louis kept Harry's old papers in a drawer in his desk. Louis kept a lot of things around, his home was still Harry's and nothing was going to change that. 

 

This story is ending soon, I think I want to reach until Chapter 24 then I might end it. There is really nothing else to write about. But I know for sure there will be an Epilogue. So I hope you guys enjoyed this story as much as I did writing it.


	22. Chapter Twenty One

One Year from Harry's death

Uni was finally done and Louis was working as an English teacher at the local Junior High. The school was only 15 minutes away from Harry's grave and 10 minutes away from Louis new apartment. Louis still kept in contact with the four boys but unfortunately they all went their separate ways. Without Harry there, they all grew apart. Louis was driving to Harry's grave, it was one year since he died and Louis still did not know how to cope with it, because so much had happened within the whole year. 

Once Louis arrived he saw the four boys already standing there. "Hello lads." They all pulled Louis into a hug and smiled. "Hey there Lou, long time no see." Liam greeted him. "Same for you." There were flowers on Harry's grave and his mother's and his sister's. All four boys were brought back to the memories they shared with Harry. They all had a quick smoke before saying goodbye. Louis stayed longer of course. Louis visited Harry's grave at least once a month, he was still deeply upset about it, and still blamed himself but he was coping with it better than he had 10 months ago. "Work is stressing me out Haz, there's just so much one can handle." Louis laughed to himself. "I've tried your remedy of going to have a drink, ended up crying myself to sleep that night, couldn't go to work the next day because of everything. Memories came flooding back like a rapid flood." Louis continued on with his speech until it was dark. When he realized it was 12:00 he said good bye and walked back to his car until he was stopped. 

"Mr. Tomlinson?" Louis turned around and saw one of his students. "Darrel, what are you doing here?" Darrel was one of Louis quiet kids, did his work, left the class in a blur. "Visiting me mum, She's been gone for five years now, what are you doing here?" Louis didn't want to give out his life to his student on his sexuality. "Visiting a really close loved one of mine, died exactly a year and a day ago." Louis caught the frown of his student. "Why do the good people have to die Mr. Tomlinson, you seem to know about a lot of things." This was the one question Louis could never answer himself, he wondered, but he could never give himself an answer. 

"I don't know Darrel, they like to take away what we love most from us." Louis answered. "They?" Darrel asked. "The angels." Darrel gave Louis and hug before his Dad was calling him. "See you tomorrow Mr. Tomlinson." Louis waved and went back to his own car where he broke down. Couldn't contain the tears anymore, so he just let it all slip out from his eyes. "Still." He whispered to himself.

Day 366

In class the next day Darrel gave Louis a flower with a note 'sorry for your loss Mr. Tomlinson, but at the end of every tunnel is a light.' Louis smiled at the thought. But Louis knows that some people never make it to the end of the tunnel to see the light. He sat down in his desk as the room started to flood with children. 

When Louis got home he checked the mail. He saw an envelope from Eleanor, someone he hadn't talked to in a really long time. 

'Dear Louis,

Saw you leaving the cemetery yesterday. I don't mean to sound like a stalked or anything. Heard you're an English teacher now, how's that working out for you? You won't be able to send anything back because I move a lot and I can't stick to one address. Long story short, I should've done better in Uni. I found something I think you'd want. I don't know whether it would be a sentimental item for you or not, but it's taped to the back of this note. Uh, miss you loads Tommo, next time you visit Harry send him my prayers and love. 

-Eleanor C.xx'

Louis flipped the page to see a another paper taped to it. Louis closed the envelope and didn't bother to read the other paper, he knew it was by Harry and he didn't want to read it. All of Harry's things were kept in a box in Louis closet. There were a few picture around Louis flat of him and Harry, he didn't mind them because it still felt like Harry's home too. Like they could still be living together. Louis had some of Harry's clothing items hanging in his closet, which Louis would sometimes wear to sleep. Louis kept Harry's beanie that still smelt like Harry in a drawer hidden. Louis kept Harry's old papers in a drawer in his desk. Louis kept a lot of things around, his home was still Harry's and nothing was going to change that. 

 

This story is ending soon, I think I want to reach until Chapter 24 then I might end it. There is really nothing else to write about. But I know for sure there will be an Epilogue. So I hope you guys enjoyed this story as much as I did writing it.


	23. Twenty Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a short chapter sorry!

3 years from Harry's death

It's not that Louis had forgotten, of course not. Eventually though, he moved on with his life and kept carrying on. Louis now had a boyfriend whom he had been dating for 6 months, Louis had not mentioned Harry to his boyfriend. Although every time his boyfriend came to Louis flat he would look at the pictures displayed around. His boyfriend had asked once, and Louis simply replied 'just a really good friend of mine.' and Harry was never brought up again. Louis had been a lot more distant though in this relationship, he wasn't as clingy and lovey, he hadn't told his boyfriend he loved him, and didn't plan to at all. Louis gave up a long time ago, no longer believing love. Love was no longer a feeling, it was just another word in the depth of a black hole. His boyfriend put up with him though, and Louis was thankful if not grateful. 

Louis was now at Harry's grave with Liam, Niall and Zayn. No one else had come, not even his own father. It was silent, they hadn't seen each other in a year. Rumours had it that Zayn and Liam were an item but Louis didn't bother to ask, it wasn't his place to. He didn't count these four boys his friends anymore, they were more acquaintances now, Louis didn't want to lose them, but it was too late. They stand around Harry's grave quietly not knowing what to say. Not even Niall could bare to break the ice, the tension was being pulled back by a rubber band and was about to snap. It was 8:00 at night, the sun was down, nothing but the chirps of the birds made noise. They all looked at each other, all of them knew this isn't what it's supposed to be like , Louis knew this is what Harry wouldn't want. Silence at a grave has got to be the most depressing thing. 

"How have you guys been?" Liam finally asks. "v'been good. Own my own club now, you guys should definitely come down and party." Niall smiles and is all jumpy, his accomplishment of owning his own club has been his biggest accomplishment these past three years. "All the studying for owning a sick club, nice one Ni." Zayn gave Niall a bone crushing hug and let him go. " What happened to us?" Zayn finally spoke up. 

"We grew apart. Harry's death took a toll upon us, of course he was the glue that kept us together. We used to be the best of friends." All the boys looked at Liam, sad eyes and sympathy. Sympathy for what? Sympathy for themselves (in the least self-centred way) because their best friend had died and here they are not showing any kind of love or memories in his loss, sympathy for each other because Harry had taken a big part of each and every single one of them. Sympathy for the people around them because they were still broken. 

They continued to talk, they made plans for next weekend, turns out Liam and Zayn were dating, and in all honesty Louis was happy for them. Happy because they are getting what him and Harry couldn't, happy because he's watching two of his best mates living what he and Harry can't anymore. Happy because they deserved the happiness, they deserved every bit of it. Happiness only comes to the people who deserve it, true happiness comes to the people who find it within themselves. Louis didn't deserve it, nor did he find it within himself. He lived a life of darkness and he was dragging people along with him, people that he didn't exactly care about but people he knew didn't deserve it. 

That was the end of it though, they were brought back to reality by the grave yard workers interrupting them telling them they needed to leave. Louis wasn't looking forward to going home, he knew his boyfriend would be waiting up for him wondering where he's been because he still didn't know about Harry. Louis was a broken piece of art in everyone's eyes. Broken yet beautiful in most people's eyes. And to Harry he will always be his beautiful broken art, because Louis belonged to Harry, even though he's gone, Louis belonged to Harry or at least a big piece of him.


	24. Twenty Three

3 years and 67 days. 

Yelling, screaming, and things hitting the wall is all you could hear from Louis flat. "Don't tell me what to do Josh! This is my flat, I can have pictures of whoever the hell I want! You don't control me." Louis threw another vase intentionally missing his boyfriend and aiming for the wall. "Louis, just calm down. Stop throwing things. All I'm asking is why do you have so many pictures of this guy? Why haven't I met him? There are no pictures of us besides the one in your bedroom that I put there! It hurts me Louis, it hurts me to see you like this." Louis backed away from Josh, no tears came out of his eyes, he stared at Josh blankly, like he had just seen a ghost. "You don't know anything." Louis whispered. "You won't let me in Louis, I can't help you if you won't let me. I can't know anything because you close yourself off. I don't know what else to do." 

"Give up. I'm a lost cause. Why are you still even here? Just give up, it's obvious you're getting tired of me Josh, just walk out that door and never come back." Josh's next actions were unexpected. He opened the door and walked out, when he looked back he saw Louis standing there "I'm sorry Louis I can't do this anymore. I'm trying and you won't put at least 1% effort into this relationship. I'm really sorry. I hope you can find someone strong enough not to give up on you like I did." As Josh walks away Louis screams "I never wanted you in my life! You were a burden to me anyways!" Louis slams the door as loud as he can and starts to bawl his eyes out. Not because he just lost his boyfriend but because everything Josh said was right, no one could help Louis, he walked out on Louis because Louis had hurt him, it was bound to happen and Louis knew it. It happened so suddenly. Louis picked himself off the floor and walked to his bedroom, he went under the covers and closed his eyes. He was alone, he had no one to run to, no one but himself. 

Louis woke up to a migraine, he searched beside him for his phone and called in sick. "Fuck everything." He groaned as he managed to pull himself out of his bed and to the bathroom.

_______________________________

Meanwhile, Niall is peach perfect. His club is doing well, he's doing well and all in all Niall is just one big happy person. Niall's phone is ringing, when he looks at it it's an unknown number, he picks it up and hears groaning on the other line. "Niall, it's Louis." 

"Hey, me ate Louis, how's everything been for you? Did you change your number?" It took a while for Louis to answer "yeah, had to change my number for personal reasons, listen mate, I haven't been feeling well at all and I was wondering if you would like to come down to my flat and have a day in." Niall looked around the empty flat and decided company was overdue. "Yeah, I'll be there in a jiffy. I'll bring the soup and some snackies we can munch on throughout the day, s'been a while since we had a proper day in together." Louis mumbles inaudible things before hanging up. 

When Niall arrives at Louis flat he enters and helps himself to anything and everything. He goes into Louis bedroom to find Louis on the bed, his body sprawled out over the duvet, one leg hanging out from his blanket and he was lying on his stomach. "My poor baby, feeling sick and everything, don't worry baby, Dr. Horan is here today to fix you all better." Niall tore the covers off of Louis emerging a moan from Louis mouth. "Shut up Niall." Niall pushed Louis body over to the side and made himself comfy in the bed. "You wanted me to come over, I'm here, so what movie are we going to watch?" 

Niall chose the most absurd movie, thinking his remedy of watching movies to help make you feel better worked. "How can you not cry at this part Louis, your heartless. He's giving away his toys, he's had them since he was a child Louis, now he's leaving for college and giving them away. How can you be so heartless and not cry for the toys." Louis laughed at Niall, they were currently watching the last Toy Story "m'not much of a crier Nialler, maybe some other time." Niall laughed and they were both having a banter. Although Niall and Louis never really hung out when it was just them two, there were the rare times they did. Niall took Louis mind off of everything, he wasn't a depressing person to be around, Niall was his own fucking annoying ray of sunshine that everyone adored, he was literally glowing with rays of happiness, and Louis thought Niall was one of those people who found happiness within themselves, Niall was a truly happy person, he didn't need to be deserving of it because he found it within himself to be happy. "Whatcha thinking Lou?" 

"Old times, how we used to be." Louis smiled and Niall kept laughing. 

And for the first time in a long time everything was off Louis mind, his break up, his job and Harry's death. All thanks to this little ray of glowing happiness right beside him. 

3 years and 90 days

Louis decided that a trip to see Zayn and Liam was necessary. He called the two lads up who had indeed moved in together and told them he was on his way. "Lou-eh!" Zayn pulls Louis into a hug followed by Liam. "Missed you much mate." 

The three boys played FIFA for hours, they drank and laughed and once again Louis mind was taken away from everything. That is until he got a phone call, he looked at his phone and Josh's name flashing on the screen. "I'll be right back boys, gotta take this." He went out onto their balcony and took the call. "Hello Josh. How nice of you to finally find some ball and call me." Louis was buzzed, half the words he meant and the other half wanted it to be a bit more nice. "Sorry, Lou. I'm really sorry for everything, I shouldn't have walked out on you like that, especially when you are in a time of need for someone." Louis wasn't shocked but rather angry. "I don't need your sympathy, Josh everything you said that night you meant, and I don't care anymore. I'm over it." Josh took a while to reply until he took a breath "I miss you Louis, I know we hit bump in the road, a pretty big one, but I want you back. I'm so sorry Louis." 

"You walked out once, you'll do it again Josh. I can't have that in my life, I can't have you walking out and prancing back into it. I don't need you to come back because you feel like I'm a charity case, because I'm fucking not. I'm a grown man, I can handle myself. You'll repeat the mistake you did, and I don't want to watch it happen again, because everything you said that night was right. I hurt you, and I dragged you down with me, that's my fault and I understand that you didn't want to deal with my bullshit anymore, but if you can't handle that then how can you handle what's coming up to the future?" There was a long pregnant silence between the two. "I just want you to know that I miss you Louis, and that I love you." 

"No. Stop, don't say that. Because you don't, Josh, just please hang up. If you loved me you wouldn't tell me over the phone. So please, Josh just hang up." Josh was rambling on and Louis was fussing over it. "Stop running away from your feeling Louis, I don't care what happened in your past, look past it already. I can be your future Louis, I promise I will make you feel better, I will take care of you. I will be there for you through thick and thin and through time of sickness." Louis laughs "This isn't a wedding vow Josh, you aren't going to be there. You can't handle my past, I don't see you in my future and I'm sorry okay? So Josh, hang up, give up. It's time." And with that the line goes dead. Liam and Zayn are standing by the balcony door staring at Louis. "Care to explain Tommo?" They all sat down on the balcony and took out their smokes while Louis told his story of him and Josh, which wasn't all that fascinating. "You'll find someone Louis, someone who will take good care of you and will understand the pain you are going through, eventually someone will." Louis hugged both Liam and Zayn, they were both genuinely good people, they had good hearts and they were just pure gold. Louis was thankful for friends like his, because without Zayn, Liam and Niall, Louis wouldn't have gotten through with half the bullshit he's gone through now. 

Louis knew he was lucky to have these three boys, and those three boys were lucky to have Louis, because without Louis all memory of Harry would've slowly faded. Of course a little piece of him would still be there but a reminder who Harry really was came from Louis. Louis was a ball of sunshine covered by a dark cloud. Louis looked up at the stars and it reminded him of Harry, because Harry was like the stars, Harry was like the sun, Harry was like the moon, Harry was Louis world a world to cease to exist but a world that only Louis could enter. 

But as a group, Niall was the sun, Liam was the moon, Louis was the stars, Zayn was the earth and Harry was gravity, Harry was the one that held everything together. Niall made everyone's day. Liam was a truly beautiful person, Zayn held and saw all the beauty, Louis was a scatter of emotions that contained so much beauty, but together they made one beautiful picture, and now it's one beautiful broken piece of art. 

They were a masks with identities yet to come out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story ends soon! This is the last chapter until the Epilogue, I cannot wait. I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it.


	25. Chapter Twenty Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter until the epilogue. Enjoy!

3 years and 67 days. 

Yelling, screaming, and things hitting the wall is all you could hear from Louis flat. "Don't tell me what to do Josh! This is my flat, I can have pictures of whoever the hell I want! You don't control me." Louis threw another vase intentionally missing his boyfriend and aiming for the wall. "Louis, just calm down. Stop throwing things. All I'm asking is why do you have so many pictures of this guy? Why haven't I met him? There are no pictures of us besides the one in your bedroom that I put there! It hurts me Louis, it hurts me to see you like this." Louis backed away from Josh, no tears came out of his eyes, he stared at Josh blankly, like he had just seen a ghost. "You don't know anything." Louis whispered. "You won't let me in Louis, I can't help you if you won't let me. I can't know anything because you close yourself off. I don't know what else to do." 

"Give up. I'm a lost cause. Why are you still even here? Just give up, it's obvious you're getting tired of me Josh, just walk out that door and never come back." Josh's next actions were unexpected. He opened the door and walked out, when he looked back he saw Louis standing there "I'm sorry Louis I can't do this anymore. I'm trying and you won't put at least 1% effort into this relationship. I'm really sorry. I hope you can find someone strong enough not to give up on you like I did." As Josh walks away Louis screams "I never wanted you in my life! You were a burden to me anyways!" Louis slams the door as loud as he can and starts to bawl his eyes out. Not because he just lost his boyfriend but because everything Josh said was right, no one could help Louis, he walked out on Louis because Louis had hurt him, it was bound to happen and Louis knew it. It happened so suddenly. Louis picked himself off the floor and walked to his bedroom, he went under the covers and closed his eyes. He was alone, he had no one to run to, no one but himself. 

Louis woke up to a migraine, he searched beside him for his phone and called in sick. "Fuck everything." He groaned as he managed to pull himself out of his bed and to the bathroom.

_______________________________

Meanwhile, Niall is peach perfect. His club is doing well, he's doing well and all in all Niall is just one big happy person. Niall's phone is ringing, when he looks at it it's an unknown number, he picks it up and hears groaning on the other line. "Niall, it's Louis." 

"Hey, me ate Louis, how's everything been for you? Did you change your number?" It took a while for Louis to answer "yeah, had to change my number for personal reasons, listen mate, I haven't been feeling well at all and I was wondering if you would like to come down to my flat and have a day in." Niall looked around the empty flat and decided company was overdue. "Yeah, I'll be there in a jiffy. I'll bring the soup and some snackies we can munch on throughout the day, s'been a while since we had a proper day in together." Louis mumbles inaudible things before hanging up. 

When Niall arrives at Louis flat he enters and helps himself to anything and everything. He goes into Louis bedroom to find Louis on the bed, his body sprawled out over the duvet, one leg hanging out from his blanket and he was lying on his stomach. "My poor baby, feeling sick and everything, don't worry baby, Dr. Horan is here today to fix you all better." Niall tore the covers off of Louis emerging a moan from Louis mouth. "Shut up Niall." Niall pushed Louis body over to the side and made himself comfy in the bed. "You wanted me to come over, I'm here, so what movie are we going to watch?" 

Niall chose the most absurd movie, thinking his remedy of watching movies to help make you feel better worked. "How can you not cry at this part Louis, your heartless. He's giving away his toys, he's had them since he was a child Louis, now he's leaving for college and giving them away. How can you be so heartless and not cry for the toys." Louis laughed at Niall, they were currently watching the last Toy Story "m'not much of a crier Nialler, maybe some other time." Niall laughed and they were both having a banter. Although Niall and Louis never really hung out when it was just them two, there were the rare times they did. Niall took Louis mind off of everything, he wasn't a depressing person to be around, Niall was his own fucking annoying ray of sunshine that everyone adored, he was literally glowing with rays of happiness, and Louis thought Niall was one of those people who found happiness within themselves, Niall was a truly happy person, he didn't need to be deserving of it because he found it within himself to be happy. "Whatcha thinking Lou?" 

"Old times, how we used to be." Louis smiled and Niall kept laughing. 

And for the first time in a long time everything was off Louis mind, his break up, his job and Harry's death. All thanks to this little ray of glowing happiness right beside him. 

3 years and 90 days

Louis decided that a trip to see Zayn and Liam was necessary. He called the two lads up who had indeed moved in together and told them he was on his way. "Lou-eh!" Zayn pulls Louis into a hug followed by Liam. "Missed you much mate." 

The three boys played FIFA for hours, they drank and laughed and once again Louis mind was taken away from everything. That is until he got a phone call, he looked at his phone and Josh's name flashing on the screen. "I'll be right back boys, gotta take this." He went out onto their balcony and took the call. "Hello Josh. How nice of you to finally find some ball and call me." Louis was buzzed, half the words he meant and the other half wanted it to be a bit more nice. "Sorry, Lou. I'm really sorry for everything, I shouldn't have walked out on you like that, especially when you are in a time of need for someone." Louis wasn't shocked but rather angry. "I don't need your sympathy, Josh everything you said that night you meant, and I don't care anymore. I'm over it." Josh took a while to reply until he took a breath "I miss you Louis, I know we hit bump in the road, a pretty big one, but I want you back. I'm so sorry Louis." 

"You walked out once, you'll do it again Josh. I can't have that in my life, I can't have you walking out and prancing back into it. I don't need you to come back because you feel like I'm a charity case, because I'm fucking not. I'm a grown man, I can handle myself. You'll repeat the mistake you did, and I don't want to watch it happen again, because everything you said that night was right. I hurt you, and I dragged you down with me, that's my fault and I understand that you didn't want to deal with my bullshit anymore, but if you can't handle that then how can you handle what's coming up to the future?" There was a long pregnant silence between the two. "I just want you to know that I miss you Louis, and that I love you." 

"No. Stop, don't say that. Because you don't, Josh, just please hang up. If you loved me you wouldn't tell me over the phone. So please, Josh just hang up." Josh was rambling on and Louis was fussing over it. "Stop running away from your feeling Louis, I don't care what happened in your past, look past it already. I can be your future Louis, I promise I will make you feel better, I will take care of you. I will be there for you through thick and thin and through time of sickness." Louis laughs "This isn't a wedding vow Josh, you aren't going to be there. You can't handle my past, I don't see you in my future and I'm sorry okay? So Josh, hang up, give up. It's time." And with that the line goes dead. Liam and Zayn are standing by the balcony door staring at Louis. "Care to explain Tommo?" They all sat down on the balcony and took out their smokes while Louis told his story of him and Josh, which wasn't all that fascinating. "You'll find someone Louis, someone who will take good care of you and will understand the pain you are going through, eventually someone will." Louis hugged both Liam and Zayn, they were both genuinely good people, they had good hearts and they were just pure gold. Louis was thankful for friends like his, because without Zayn, Liam and Niall, Louis wouldn't have gotten through with half the bullshit he's gone through now. 

Louis knew he was lucky to have these three boys, and those three boys were lucky to have Louis, because without Louis all memory of Harry would've slowly faded. Of course a little piece of him would still be there but a reminder who Harry really was came from Louis. Louis was a ball of sunshine covered by a dark cloud. Louis looked up at the stars and it reminded him of Harry, because Harry was like the stars, Harry was like the sun, Harry was like the moon, Harry was Louis world a world to cease to exist but a world that only Louis could enter. 

But as a group, Niall was the sun, Liam was the moon, Louis was the stars, Zayn was the earth and Harry was gravity, Harry was the one that held everything together. Niall made everyone's day. Liam was a truly beautiful person, Zayn held and saw all the beauty, Louis was a scatter of emotions that contained so much beauty, but together they made one beautiful picture, and now it's one beautiful broken piece of art.

They were a masks with identities yet to come out.


	26. Epilogue

3 years and 107 days

The four boys had grown closer, they went out partying on weekends and on weekdays they would occasionally go out to dinner. Louis enjoyed the four boys' company because he felt as if he were getting fixed. Louis was finally being mended by the three people that he truly cared about, the same three lads who had gone through the same exact tragedy he had. These three boys meant the world to him, they grew apart at one point but found each other again. These three boys were inseparable. They filled the hole that Harry had left, he didn't need to find "true love" as long as he had these three boys who were sitting right next to him. 

4 years- 

"We've come so far." Liam whispered. All of them sat around Harry's grave, this was a yearly thing, and they didn't plan on stopping it because to them Harry was still somehow with each and every one of them. "I'm so proud of us." Niall looked up into the air, it was a gloomy day, but the sun was peeking out behind a cloud, it was gloomy with a little bit of happiness. "He's proud of us." Zayn smiled. "We've made it this far, we shouldn't give up now. I mean look at us, we lost each other and here we are, just like old times. Can't believe we almost lost each other." Louis spoke. 

"We almost did, but we didn't." Zayn smiled back, Zayn sighed and added "I say we take a celebratory smoke? How about you lads?" Niall pulled a cigarette out for everyone and they all lit it. 

5 years ago Louis would've accepted a cigarette. Louis would've turned it down and start a rant about how smoking was bad for you, but that was five years ago, a lot can change in five years. Louis looks back on his life now, he's a changed person that's for sure, but these boys bring out the best in him whether they knew it or not. Niall had changed too, not all that much but a bit. He was more serious now, Niall wasn't a walking cuss machine anymore, in fact he managed to control his use of bad words and use them in appropriate situations. Zayn hadn't changed all that much, he was still calm and mellow, but he had lost a little life in his eyes. It was almost sickening to see it happen to him, but whenever he was with the boys the life came back. Then there was Liam, Liam, who took care of the boys, who was uptight, damn right he changed, he loosened up, he's gotten himself a proper job and he's perfectly happy now, everyone was happier once they had each other. 

"To the one thing Harry loved more than hurting himself." Zayn held up his cigarette and put it back between his lips. "But don't cigarette's kill?" Louis asked while Zayn laughed "slowly but surely Donny, slowly but surely." They all continued on their bantering, they joked around they shared laughs and many memories, they felt as if Harry had never left them because in reality he did, but in their minds he hadn't. Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles would always be the original prank group, that's how the school remembers them. Although they my not be on the wall of fame or the most memorable, their pranks would always be repeated in history, their pranks will always be known as theirs, because in all honesty they started it. They were the original group, they were the ones who caused trouble and got into trouble, but it as always as a group. 

Before they got kicked out of the graveyard, they all put their plants on Harry's grave. They decided that flowers were too original and that when their plants grow, they will grow into tall trees. Louis brought a baby oak tree hoping one day it would turn into a big oak tree, right beside Harry's grave, because if there was one thing Harry loved the most about being on here, it was the oak trees. Harry had always admired oak trees, they were his secret get away. "They'll probably chop it down before it gets too tall." Liam said killing the mood. "It's the thought that counts Li." Louis replied. 

When Louis got home he laid down and thought how much his life took a dramatic turn. God forbid anyone else goes through what Louis did, but you can't stop death. Death is part of the human nature, it's a cycle of how life works, death simply cannot be stopped. It was in that moment that Louis felt Harry's presence beside him. It was that moment Louis knew had to let go, it was that moment Louis realized he hadn't handled Harry's death in a proper manner. Harry had surely changed Louis, for the better of course. He opened up Louis eyes, and Louis thought he should be thankful to have known Harry Styles because there was only one of Harry, and Louis couldn't have been more enchanted by it. He loved Harry but it was that moment Louis finally let Harry go. It was that moment Louis finally let Harry rest in peace, it was that moment Louis finally moved on, because that moment was the start of a new Louis. That moment was a start of Louis new life, leaving everything behind him. Every sad feeling he could drop, it was that moment Louis finally felt free. Louis was letting go, Louis was going to be happy again. In that moment Louis was happy, and he would continue to be happy, not for Harry's sake but for his own, for his own and for the people around him. Louis wasn't going to mope around anymore, Louis was going to be happy. Louis is happy. Louis is finally happy. 

But there would still be a part of Harry Styles in Louis Tomlinson. Still.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end! I hope you guys liked this story as much as I did writing it. I posted this three months ago, time flew by fast, and I didn't take that long to complete it. I hope to keep writing, so thank you guys so much! I love you all.

**Author's Note:**

> This story has not been edited yet, so please do not mind any spelling errors or grammar errors.


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